FRANK  M.  CHAPMAN 


THE  GIFT  OF 

FLORENCE  V.  V.  DICKEY 

TO  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


THE  DONALD  R.  DICKEY 

LIBRARY 
OF  VERTEBRATE  ZOOLOGY 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 


By  FRANK  M.  CHAPMAN 

Curator  of  Ornithology  in  the  American  Museum 
of  Natural  History 

HANDBOOK  OF  BIRDS  OF  EASTERN  NORTH  AMERICA 

Revised  Edition.     With  Keys  to  the  Species, 
Descriptions  of  their  Plumages,  Nests,  etc.,  and 
their  Distribution  and  Migrations.     With  over 
200  Illustrations.     Also  in 
POCKET  EDITION,  with  flexible  covers. 

BIRD-LIFE.      A  Guide  to  the  Study  of  Oar  Common  Bird* 

POPULAR  EDITION  in  colors. 
BIRD   STUDIES  WITH    A    CAMERA.      With  Introductory 

Chapters  on  the  Outfit  and  Methods  of  the  Bird  Photographer 

Illustrated  with  over   100  photographs  from 
Nature  by  the  Author. 

THE  WARBLERS  OF  NORTH  AMERICA 

With  Contributions  from  other  Ornithologists 
and  24  full-page  Colored  Plates  illustrating 
every  Species,  from  Drawings  by  L.  A.  Fuertes 
and  B.  Horsfall,  and  Half-tones  of  Nests  and 
Eggs. 
CAMPS  AND  CRUISES  OF  AN  ORNITHOLOGIST 

With  250  Photographs  from  Nature  by  the 
Author. 

COLOR  KEY  TO  NORTH  AMERICAN  BIRDS 

Revised  Edition.     With  over  800  pictures. 
THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 
D.  APPLETON   &  COMPANY        NEW  YORK 


THE  DAY  FLYERS. 


Geese, 


Ducks, 
Blackbirds, 


Crows, 


Swallows. 


BIRS 


BIRDS  AND  THEIR  JOURNEYS 
TO  STRANGE  LANDS 


-^^ 


FRANK  Ai^CHAPMAN 

THE  BIRD'S  HISTORIAN 


NEW    YORK   AND    LONDON 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1916,  BY 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,  1915, 1916,  BY  THE  CENTURY  COMPANY 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


\t\\b 


TO 

THE    MEMORY    OF 

WELLS  W.  COOKE 

FOREMOST  AMERICAN  STUDENT 
OF  BIRD  MIGRATION 


501463 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.     BIRDS  AS  TRAVELERS I 

II.     PREPARING  FOR  THE  JOURNEY      ...  8 

III.  FIRST  FLIGHTS 19 

IV.  THE  BIRDS'  AIR  LINE 31 

V.     THE  BIRDS'  TIME-TABLE      ....  47 

VI.     THE  DAY  FLYERS 64 

VII.     THE  NIGHT  FLYERS 76 

VIII.     THE  TRAVELS  OF  THE  BOBOLINK  ...  88 

IX.     SOME  FAMOUS  BIRD  TRAVELERS  .        .        .  101 

X.     THE  DANGERS  BY  THE  WAY         .        .        .115 

XI.     THE  BIRDS'  COMPASS 133 

XII.     WHY  BIRDS  TRAVEL 148 

INDEX 159 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

The  Day  Flyers         ....        Frontispiece 

The  Swallows'  Engine 10 

Bobwhite's  Engine u 

Great  Auk 12 

Resting  by  the  Wayside 21 

The  Travelers'  Inn 23 

The  Travels  of  the  Mourning  Warbler     ...  36 

The  Travels  of  the  Blackpoll 40 

The  Travels  of  the  Redstart 43 

Birds  and  Seasons 51 

The  Advance  Guard 52 

Spring's  First  Flycatcher 54 

The  Flying  Wedge 66 

Hawks  Traveling 68 

Traveling  Nighthawks 71 

A  Famous  Day  Flyer          ......  74 

The  Birds  in  the  Moon     ......  83 

The  Bobolink 90 

The  Travels  of  the  Bobolink 95 

The  Travels  of  the  Golden  Plover      .         .        .         .  109 
The  Night  Flyers'  Beacon  of  Danger        .        .         .124 

Man-of-War  Bird 142 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 


BIRDS  AS  TRAVELERS 

BIRDS  are  the  greatest  travelers  in  the 
world.  Some  other  animals  also  make 
long  journeys.  The  fur-bearing  seals  that  pass 
the  summer  on  the  Pribilof  Islands  in  Bering 
Sea  go  as  far  south  as  southern  California  in 
the  winter.  The  caribou,  or  reindeer  of  the  Bar- 
ren Grounds  which  border  the  Arctic  Ocean, 
travel  southward  in  the  fall  to  find  food  and 
shelter  in  the  spruce  and  balsam  forests  of  the 
interior  of  British  America. 

Shad  and  salmon  leave  the  sea  and  swim  often 
hundreds  of  miles  up  rivers  to  lay  their  eggs. 
Certain  locusts,  which  are  called  "grasshoppers," 
and  some  butterflies  go  long  distances.  But  not 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

one  of  these  animals  can  compare  with  the  bird 
as  a  traveler. 

It  is  true  that  man  makes  longer  journeys  than 
birds  do.  But  it  is  also  true  that  he  could  not 
make  them  without  help  from  other  men.  He 
might  walk  where  there  was  land,  but  he  would 
need  days  to  go  as  far  as  a  bird  could  go  in  an 
hour.  And  when  he  comes  to  the  sea  he  requires 
a  sailing  vessel  or  steamer  with  charts  and  maps 
and  compass  to  aid  him  in  finding  the  way;  while 
in  the  hold  there  must  be  food  for  the  use  of  the 
crew  and  passengers  during  the  voyage. 

But  the  bird  traveler  asks  help  from  no  one. 
He  has  no  use  for  locomotives,  automobiles  or 
steamships.  He  carries  no  chart  and  no  com- 
pass, and  he  can  go  with  ease  to  parts  of  the 
world  which  it  took  man  many  years  to  reach, 
and  to  some  parts  of  the  world  which  still  are 
unknown  to  man. 

Think  of  the  explorers  amid  the  ice  and  snow 

of  the  Arctic.    With  what  difficulty  they  fight 

their  way  through  the  ice-floes.    At  times  they 

find  it  impossible  to  advance.    They  are  in  fre- 

2 


BIRDS  AS  TRAVELERS 

quent  danger  of  being  crushed  by  the  grinding 
ice-fields,  and  while  they  struggle  bravely  on- 
ward, Gulls  may  go  calmly  floating  by  overhead 
without  perhaps  even  making  a  stroke  of  their 
long,  powerful  wings. 

Or  in  the  Antarctic,  Penguins  slip  through 
the  leads,  or  openings  in  the  ice,  and,  like 
feathered  submarines,  dive,  when  their  path  on 
the  surface  is  closed,  to  travel  even  more  swiftly 
under  the  water  than  on  it. 

There  are  mountaintops  so  high  and  so  steep 
that  man  has  never  succeeded  in  climbing  them. 
But  the  birds  may  use  them  as  resting-places 
and  soar  about  in  the  sky  far  above  them. 

So  I  think  we  may  safely  say  that  the  bird 
is  not  only  the  greatest  of  aviators,  but  that  he  is 
also  the  greatest  of  travelers.  Not  even  man  can 
excel  him. 

Now  to  travel  is  one  of  the  most  interesting 
things  we  can  do.  We  may  see  beautiful  scenery, 
wonderful  cities,  and  strange  people.  There  is 
no  end  to  the  experiences  which  may  befall  the 
traveler  or  to  the  opportunities  he  may  have  to 
3 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

/ 

learn.  But  if  we  cannot  go  to  foreign  countries 
ourselves,  sometimes  the  next  best  thing  we  can 
do  is  to  read  about  the  travels  of  others.  So  far 
as  I  know,  there  is  no  way  by  which  we  could 
go  with  the  birds  on  their  travels.  Even  a  tiny 
Hummingbird  could  laugh  at  the  efforts  of  the 
best  aviator,  if  he  should  attempt  to  follow  him 
in  an  aeroplane  from  Canada  to  Central  Amer- 
ica. 

Of  course  the  birds  cannot  write  books  about 
themselves.  If,  therefore,  we  cannot  either  go 
with  them  or  read  their  own  accounts  of  their 
long  journeys,  how  shall  we  learn  anything  about 
these  great  bird  travelers?  We  must  ask  a  natu- 
ralist who  studies  birds. 

In  the  dictionary  we  will  find  him  defined 
under  the  name  "ornithologist,"  which  means  a 
person  who  studies  and  writes  or  talks  about 
birds.  It  is  a  long  name,  but,  like  hippopotamus 
or  rhinoceros,  not  so  strange  when  you  become 
familiar  with  it. 

Then  we  shall  discover  that  there  are  various 
kinds  of  bird  students,  or  ornithologists.  Some 
4 


BIRDS  AS  TRAVELERS 

of  them  study  the  food  of  birds;  others  their 
nesting  habits;  others  still  their  migrations.  By 
"migration,"  the  ornithologist  means  "travels," 
though  migration  more  exactly  describes  the 
journeys  of  birds  than  the  word  travel.  Migra- 
tions are  more  regular  and  are  made  with  a 
more  definite  purpose;  while  travels  may  be 
made  at  any  time  and  to  any  place.  So  what  is 
really  meant  by  travel,  as  I  have  been  using  the 
word,  is  migration. 

For  many  years  I  have  been  studying  the 
migrations  of  birds.  I  have  gone  to  their  sum- 
mer homes  in  the  north  and  their  winter  homes 
in  the  south.  I  have  seen  them  go  and  seen  them 
come.  I  have  been  on  little  islands  in  the  seas 
at  which  they  paused  for  food,  and  on  vessels 
in  the  ocean  when  they  stopped  to  rest.  With 
a  telescope  I  have  watched  them  flying  at  night, 
and  while  at  the  top  of  a  lighthouse  I  have  had 
the  birds,  blinded  by  the  bright  rays  from  the 
lantern,  fly  against  me  as  they  tried  to  continue 
their  journey  through  the  night.  Then,  of 
course,  I  have  studied  what  other  ornithologists 
2  5 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

have  written  about  this  wonderful  subject  of  bird 
migration.  From  what  I  have  learned  from 
them  and  from  the  birds  themselves  I  propose 
now  to  act  as  the  birds'  historian. 

I  shall  try  to  tell  you  how  they  prepare  for 
the  journey;  how  they  find  their  way;  when  and 
where  they  go,  and  how  they  get  there.  And  I 
shall  be  but  a  poor  historian  if  I  do  not  arouse 
in  you  so  strong  an  admiration  for  these  skillful 
voyagers  of  the  air  that  you  will  give  them  a 
hearty  greeting  when  they  come  in  the  spring 
and  wish  them  good  luck  when  they  leave  in 
the  fall. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  STUDY 

Mention  some  of  the  bird  travelers  you  have  seen. 
When  and  where  were  they  seen?  Where  had  they 
been  and  where  were  they  going?  Were  they  trav- 
eling alone  or  in  company  with  other  birds?  If  in 
company,  were  their  companions  of  the  same  or  of 
different  species? 

What  do  you  know  about  the  seals  of  the  Pribilof 
Islands?     Are  they  the  kind  of  seals  from  which 
"seal-skin"  fur  is  obtained?    Where  else  besides  the 
Pribilof  Islands  do  seals  of  this  kind  live? 
6 


BIRDS  AS  TRAVELERS 

Give  some  facts  in  connection  with  the  migration 
of  salmon;  of  shad.  Name  rivers  up  which  these 
fish  migrate.  When  do  shad  feach  the  vicinity  of 
New  York  City  in  the  spring? 

What  butterfly  is  known  to  migrate?  In  what 
countries  are  migratory  or  traveling  locusts  found? 
Describe  a  locust  invasion.  Are  locusts  injurious 
to  vegetation? 

In  what  part  of  the  world  are  Penguins  found? 
Do  they  live  alone  or  in  communities?  How  do 
they  progress  on  land?  In  water?  How  many 
branches  of  ornithology  can  you  define?  In  what 
way  are  birds  indispensable  to  man? 


II 

PREPARING  FOR  THE  JOURNEY 

A  LTHOUGH  the  bird  traveler  has  no  trunk 
JL\.  to  pack,  guidebook  to  study,  nor  ticket 
to  buy,  still  he  must  make  some  preparations  for 
the  journey. 

The  Warbler  which  nests  in  Alaska  and  passes 
the  winter  in  northern  South  America,  should 
not  begin  a  seven-thousand-mile  voyage  through 
the  air,  over  mountains,  plains,  and  seas  unless 
its  engine  is  in  good  order  and  it  has  a  proper 
supply  of  fuel. 

"But,"  you  ask,  "what  is  a  bird's  engine  and 
where  does  it  carry  fuel?"  A  bird's  engine  is 
really  its  wings  and  the  muscles  which  move 
them.  It  is  one  of  the  most  perfect  engines  in 
the  world.  It  is  simple  but  strong.  It  works 
easily  but  is  powerful,  and  it  rarely  gets  out  of 
order. 

For  many  years  man  tried  to  make  flying- 


PREPARING  FOR  THE  JOURNEY 

machines  which  would  have  wings  like  those  of 
birds.  But  he  never  succeeded.  He  could  not 
make  even  a  feather!  Finally  he  discovered  that 
if  he  would  make  a  machine  that  would  fly,  he 
must  give  it  wings  and  an  engine.  So  he  con- 
structed an  aeroplane  which  has  wide,  stiff  wings 
or  planes  measuring  about  thirty  feet  from  tip 
to  tip.  These  wings  cannot  be  flapped,  and,  in 
themselves,  they  furnish  no  power.  But  to  them 
man  added  an  engine  driven  by  gasoline  and 
electricity.  This  engine  turns  a  long-bladed  pro- 
peller which  urges  the  aeroplane  forward,  while 
the  planes  support  it  when  it  is  in  motion.  But 
a  bird's  wing,  we  must  remember,  is  both  plane 
and  engine.  It  gives  support  as  well  as  power. 
It  is  therefore  a  far  more  remarkable  machine 
than  the  one  made  by  man. 

Now  let  us  see  some  kinds  of  birds'  engines. 
Although  they  all  work  on  the  same  principle 
they  differ  greatly  in  shape  and  size.  We  shall 
find  that  most  birds  which  make  long  journeys 
have  one  kind  of  engine,  while  those  that  travel 
but  little  have  quite  a  different  looking  engine. 
9 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

Think  of  the  Swallow's  engine.  It  is  quite 
as  long  as  the  bird  itself;  the  feathers  are  stiff 
and  strong,  and  when  in  motion  they  cut  the  air 
with  graceful,  sweeping  strokes  which  send  the 
bird  forward  easily  but  at  great  speed.  A  bird 
fitted  with  such  an  engine,  we  feel  sure,  could 
make  a  very  long  journey  quickly  and  without 


THE  SWALLOW'S  ENGINE. 

The  long  wing  and  small  foot  of  a  Swallow,  a  bird  that  travels 
and  feeds  in  the  air. 

tiring  itself.  So  we  find  that  the  Barn  Swallow, 
which  glides  and  darts  about  our  fields  in  sum- 
mer, goes  to  Brazil  to  spend  the  winter. 

Now  let  us  see  the  engine  of  the  Quail  or 
Bobwhite.  How  short  and  round  it  is!  And 
when  the  bird  flies  how  rapidly  it  moves  its 
wings — at  least  four  times  as  fast  as  does  the 
Swallow!  The  bird  is  so  heavy,  its  wings  so 
small  that,  although  it  can  go  swiftly,  it  is  evi- 
10 


PREPARING  FOR  THE  JOURNEY 

dently  hard  work  for  it  to  do  so.  It  therefore 
makes  but  a  short  flight  and  soon  drops  to  the 
ground  again.  So  we  are  not  surprised  to  find 
that  Bobwhite  spends  his  life  near  the  place 
where  he  was  born.  He  is  no  traveler.  Most 
of  the  time  he  lives  on  the  ground  like  a  chicken. 


BOBWHITE'S  ENGINE. 

The  short  wing  and   large  foot  of  Bobwhite,   a   bird  that  stays 
at  home  and  feeds  on  the  ground. 

And  like  a  chicken  he  has  large,  strong  feet, 
which  not  only  carry  him  about  from  field  to 
field  in  search  of  food,  but  can  be  used  to  scratch 
for  it.  He  needs  his  engine  chiefly  to  help  him 
to  escape  quickly  from  some  prowling  fox  or 
other  enemy.  He  must  go  fast  if  not  far. 

If  we  should  put  Bobwhite  on  an  island  where 
there  were  no  enemies  to  escape  from  and  where 
ii 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

it  was  never  necessary  for  him  to  fly,  he  might, 
in  time,  wholly  lose  the  use  of  his  engine  and 
be  unable  to  fly.  Indeed  this  has  happened  to 


GREAT  AUK. 

The  Great  Auk  was  flightless  (note  its  small  wings).  It  was 
therefore  a  stay-at-home  among  birds,  and  being  unable  to 
escape  was  killed  by  fishermen  for  its  flesh,  feathers,  and  oil. 
It  is  now  extinct,  none  having  been  seen  since  1842.  Compare 
the  Great  Auk's  "engines"  with  those  of  the  Man-of-War  Bird, 
figured  on  page  143. 


some  birds  of  the  Rail  and  Gallinule  family. 

They  have  lived  so  long  on  islands,  where  they 

never  had  to  fly,  that  their  wings  have  become 

12 


PREPARING  FOR  THE  JOURNEY 

too  small  to  raise  them  in  the  air.  It  is  as  though 
their  engines  had  become  rusty  from  disuse. 

Not  all  the  great  bird  travelers  have  such  a 
splendid  engine  as  the  Swallow.  Some,  indeed, 
like  the  Sora  or  Carolina  Rail,  have  such  small 
wings  that  it  is  difficult  to  understand  Jhow  they 
fly  from  Canada  to  South  America.  But  we 
must  remember  that  their  bodies  are  light.  It  is 
not  so  much  the  size  of  the  engine  as  the  size  of 
the  train  it  draws  that  counts.  The  Humming- 
bird's wings  are  not  much  wider  and  longer  than 
one's  thumb,  but  they  are  large  enough  to  carry 
the  bird's  tiny  body  over  thousands  of  miles. 

Everyone  knows  that  birds'  wings,  or  engines, 
are  made  of  feathers  growing  from  a  very  light 
but  wonderfully  strong  frame  of  bones.  Light- 
ness and  strength  are  indeed  the  main  features  of 
the  bird's  wing.  But  even  the  strongest  feathers 
wear  out.  Then  the  engine  must  be  repaired. 
No  bird  wears  a  suit  of  feathers  longer  than  one 
year.  The  change  is  usually  made  in  summer 
after  the  family  has  left  the  nest  and  learned 
to  take  care  of  itself.  Then  the  old  and  worn 
13 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

feathers  drop  out  and  fresh  ones  grow  rapidly  in 
their  places.  This  is  called  molting. 

If  the  feathers  should  fall  out  of  one  wing 
faster  than  they  did  from  the  other,  the  bird's 
flight  would  be  unbalanced.  It  would  be 
crippled,  like  an  aeroplane  with  only  one  plane. 
Or  if  all  the  feathers  were  to  fall  out  of  both 
wings  at  once,  the  engine  would  be  powerless. 
The  bird  could  not  get  its  food  and  it  might  fall 
a  prey  to  its  enemies.  To  prevent  this,  the  bird's 
engines  are  repaired  in  the  most  wonderful  way. 

The  feathers  begin  to  drop  from  the  middle 
of  the  wing;  only  two  are  lost  at  a  time,  and  they 
are  from  exactly  the  same  place  in  each  wing. 
New  ones  at  once  sprout  from  the  hole  left  by 
the  falling  feather.  When  they  are  about  half 
grown,  two  more  feathers  are  lost  as  before,  one 
from  each  wing.  These  are  probably  the  next 
feathers  toward  the  outer  ones.  Again,  the  new 
ones  sprout  quickly.  Now  the  third  pair  is  lost; 
if  the  second  pair  fell  from  toward  the  outer- 
most feathers,  the  third  pair  will  fall  from  to- 
ward the  body,  or  the  innermost  ones. 


PREPARING  FOR  THE  JOURNEY 

So  the  repair  of  the  engine,  or  molt  of  the 
wings,  continues.  First  a  pair  of  quills  from 
the  outer  half,  then  a  pair  from  the  inner.  The 
process  is  slow,  for  it  waits  on  the  growth  of 
the  new  feathers.  But  it  never  robs  the  engine 
of  its  power.  At  no  time  is  there  more  than  a 
pair  of  feathers  missing  from  both  wings.  The 
wing  is  therefore  always  balanced  and  the  bird 
can  fly  during  the  entire  molt. 

The  molt  does  more  than  repair  the  engine. 
It  may  also  disguise  the  bird  traveler  so  that  he 
can  journey  more  safely.  I  say  "he"  because  if 
a  disguise  is  used  at  all,  it  is  worn  only  by  the 
male. 

The  brilliant  male  Scarlet  Tanager  replaces 
his  fiery  red  body  feathers  with  others  of  olive- 
green,  like  those  of  his  mate,  his  wings  and  tail 
remaining  black. 

The  Bobolink,  as  we  shall  see  beyond,  changes 
his  costume  of  black,  white  and  buff  for  an  in- 
conspicuous suit  like  that  of  his  wife.  Many 
other  birds  follow  this  custom.  Why  should 
they  expose  themselves  to  danger  by  wearing 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

gay  colors  when  traveling?  Or,  at  any  rate,  why 
should  they  don  their  courtship  dress  until  the 
return  of  the  wedding  season  the  following 
Spring? 

It  is  not  until  the  molt  is  completed  and  the 
engine  is  in  perfect  order  that  the  bird  starts 
on  its  travels. 

It  only  remains  now  to  take  the  fuel  aboard. 
This  with  birds  is  nothing  less  than  fat.  A  run- 
ner training  for  a  race  tries  to  become  thin.  But 
many  birds  when  preparing  for  a  long  journey 
put  on  a  coat  of  fat.  On  it  they  live,  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent,  during  the  time  of  migration.  If 
the  bird  can  get  food  by  the  way,  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  carry  so  much  with  him.  Swallows  can 
feed  as  they  fly.  The  Warblers  and  Vireos  and 
other  birds  that  fly  by  night  can  hunt  insects 
during  the  day.  But  the  Plover  and  other  birds 
that  travel  over  the  seas  cannot  stop  for  meals. 
Like  bears  in  winter  they  must  live  on  them- 
selves, that  is,  on  their  fat  When  they  start, 
their  body  is  covered  with  a  thick  layer  of  fat, 
but  when  they  arrive  at  their  journey's  end  it 
16 


PREPARING  FOR  THE  JOURNEY 

has  disappeared.      It  was  fuel  for  the  engine. 

Even  the  birds  that  travel  overland,  where 
food  is  plentiful,  take  some  fuel  with  them.  I 
have  noticed  when  collecting  and  preserving 
specimens  of  birds  in  South  America  in  the 
spring  for  the  American  Museum,  that  all  the 
North  American  birds  which  were  about  to  start 
on  the  long  journey  to  their  summer  homes  were 
very  fat,  while  all  the  native  birds,  which  were 
getting  ready  to  nest,  were  practically  without 
fat. 

Still,  there  they  were,  living  together;  eating, 
probably,  much  the  same  kind  of  food.  Why 
this  food  should  make  one  bird  fat  and  the  other 
thin  it  is  difficult  to  say.  But  we  may  be  sure 
that  in  each  case  it  was  preparing  the  bird  for 
the  work  it  had  to  do. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  STUDY 

Compare  a  bird  with  an  aeroplane.  How  does 
a  bird's  flight  differ  from  that  of  an  aeroplane? 
Mention  some  of  the  birds  you  know  and  describe 
the  shape  and  relative  size  of  their  wings.  Are  they 
long  and  pointed;  short  and  rounded;  large  or 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

small?  Are  they  for  long  journeys  or  short  ones? 
Count  the  number  of  wing  strokes  made  by  a  flying 
bird  in  five  seconds.  Which  makes  the  greatest 
number — long-winged  birds  or  short-winged  ones? 
What  part  does  the  bird's  tail  play  in  flight? 

What  can  you  tell  about  the  bones  of  a  bird's 
wing?  Compare  them  with  those  of  a  man's  arm 
and  hand.  Name  the  kinds  of  feathers  attached 
to  the  wing  and  from  which  part  each  set  grow 
(a  chicken's  wing  might  be  obtained  for  this  pur- 
pose). Name  the  parts  of  a  feather.  How  are 
the  feathers  of  the  wing  molted?  What  birds  can 
you  mention  that  wear  differently  colored  costumes 
during  the  year?  Compare  their  summer,  with  their 
winter  dress.  Do  both  male  and  female  birds  un- 
dergo this  change  in  appearance?  If  the  male  dif- 
fers from  the  female,  which  is  the  brighter  ?  Why  ? 


Ill 

FIRST  FLIGHTS 

ONE  of  the  best  ways  to  prepare  for  a  long 
journey  is  to  make  a  short  one.  So  we 
find  that  before  many  birds  embark  on  their  great 
air  voyage  which  is  to  take  them  from  their  sum- 
mer to  their  winter  home,  they  first  make  daily 
trips  between  their  sleeping  quarters  and  their 
feeding  grounds. 

This  is  the  habit  of  our  Robin.  Robins  raise 
two  and  sometimes  three  families  in  one  season. 
When  the  first  family  leaves  the  nest,  early  in 
June,  it  is  taken  by  the  father  Robin  to  some 
dense,  leafy  growth  of  young  trees  to  pass  the 
night.  To  this  place  they  return  every  night. 
Many  other  Robins,  sometimes  thousands  of 
them,  come  to  the  same  woods.  Such  resorts  are 
known  as  Robin  roosts.  In  flying  to  and  from 
them  the  young  birds  learn  how  to  find  their 
way. 

19 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

Meanwhile  mother  Robin  is  patiently  sitting 
on  her  blue  eggs  from  which  in  about  two  weeks' 
time  another  little  family  will  appear.  In  two 
weeks  more  they  also  will  be  large  enough  to 
leave  the  nest  and  can  join  their  brothers  and 
sisters  in  the  roost. 

Grackles,*or  Crow  Blackbirds,  have  the  same 
habit.  But  since  they  have  only  one  family,  or 
brood,  both  the  parent  birds  go  to  the  roost  with 
their  young. 

Sometimes  the  Robins  are  joined  by  the 
Crackles,  and  both  by  the  European  Starlings, 
which,  brought  to  this  country  and  released  in 
Central  Park  in  1890,  have  since  become  one  of 
the  most  abundant  birds  in  our  Middle  Atlantic 
States.  Such  a  roost  is  visited  nightly  by  many 
thousands  of  birds.  It  is  very  interesting,  at 
sunset,  to  watch  them  come  streaming  in  from 
every  point  of  the  compass  and  to  hear  their 
good-night  chorus  before  they  all  go  to  sleep. 

In  the  morning  they  begin  to  leave  soon  after 
daybreak  and  by  sunrise  few  are  left.  The  place 
which  was  thronged  by  myriads  is  deserted. 
20 


FIRST  FLIGHTS 

Late  in  the  afternoon  they  begin  to  return  and 
ere  long  the  roost  is  again  teeming  with  feathered 
forms. 


RESTING  BY  THE  WAYSIDE. 

Swallows  prepare  for  their  great  journey  by  gathering  in  large 
numbers  at  way  stations  in  the  marshes  on  the  line  of  travel. 
While  waiting  for  the  time  to  leave,  they  fly  out  over  the  coun- 
try each  day  when  we  often  see  them  resting  on  the  wayside 
wires. 

The  little  journeys  of  Swallows  from  their 
sleeping  resorts  to  their  hunting  grounds  begin 
in  July  and  do  not  end  until  late  September  or 

3  21 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

early  October.  Swallows  sleep  in  the  reeds  or 
cat-tails  which  grow  in  vast  marshes.  There 
they  are  so  hidden  that  you  might  pass  very  near 
them  without  seeing  a  bird.  But  suddenly,  like 
an  exploding  firework  which  fills  the  air  with 
sparks,  they  burst  from  their  roost  and  there  is  a 
swarm  of  happy,  twittering  birds  above  you.  A 
moment  later  they  have  gone,  each  one  to  hunt 
its  breakfast. 

At  midday  and  in  the  early  afternoon,  one 
may  see  them  resting  in  long  rows  on  the  electric 
wires.  Late  in  the  afternoon  they  begin  to  return 
to  the  marshes,  darting  for  mosquitoes  and  other 
insects  as  they  go.  During  the  day  they  have 
flown  far.  Thus  they  gain  the  practice  which 
makes  them  ready  for  the  great  journey  to  the 
South. 

How  they  know  when  it  is  time  to  start,  who 
can  say?  But  that  they  all  know  it  is  certain. 
On  that  day  all  the  Swallows  which  have  been 
roosting  within  miles  of  one  another  rise  up  in 
the  air  together.  From  a  distance  they  look  like 
a  snowstorm  of  great  black  flakes.  There  seems 
22 


FIRST  FLIGHTS 

to  be  much  excitement.  The  great  day  has 
come!  Soon  they  leave  the  marsh  not  to  return 
until  the  following  spring. 


THE  TRAVELERS'  INN. 

Migrating  Chimney  Swifts  going  to  their  roost     Thousands  some- 
times pass  the  night  in  the   same  chimney. 

Chimney  Swifts  in  their  daily  journeys  scatter 
far  and  wide  over  the  country.  One  may  see  a 
Swift  coursing  through  the  air  here,  and  another 
there.  But  in  the  evening  they  all  come  racing 
in  toward  the  chimney  in  which  they  are  to  pass 
23 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

the  night.  Before  this  country  was  settled  the 
Swifts  nested  and  roosted  in  hollow  trees.  Now, 
as  we  all  know,  they  use  chimneys,  and  the  roost- 
ing chimney  is  usually  a  large  one. 

The  early  arrivals  do  not  enter  the  chimney  at 
once.  In  fact  no  Swifts  go  to  bed  until  practi- 
cally all  have  come.  Then  they  fly  in  a  great, 
irregular  troop  around  and  around  in  the  air 
over  the  chimney.  Faster  and  faster  they  go, 
nearer  and  nearer  they  come  to  the  chimney-top. 
Then,  like  a  whirling  column  of  smoke,  a  part  of 
them  pour  into  the  chimney.  The  others  go 
flying  madly  onward.  Again  they  approach  the 
chimney  and  another  group  of  birds  darts  spi- 
rally into  it.  This  performance  is  repeated  until 
not  a  Swift  remains  outside.  What  a  singular 
appearance  the  walls  of  the  chimney  must  pre- 
sent at  this  time,  with  its  hundreds  and  often 
thousands  of  soot-colored  birds  clinging  to  them! 
In  the  morning  the  Swifts  leave  in  small  parties, 
and  at  once  separate  widely  over  the  country 
in  search  of  food. 

In  southwestern  Minnesota  there  is  a  small 
24 


FIRST  FLIGHTS 

lake,  about  five  miles  long  and  three  wide,  called 
Heron  Lake.  It  is  the  favorite  resort  in  the  fall 
of  the  beautiful  Franklin's  or  Prairie  Gull. 
There  are  many  thousands  of  them  there  and 
their  daily  journey  from  the  lake  to  gather  food 
out  on  the  prairies  is  one  of  the  most  impressive 
sights  I  have  ever  seen  in  bird  life. 

The  Gulls  sleep  near  the  center  of  the  lake, 
all  crowded  closely  together.  They  leave  before 
sunrise.  All  rise  at  once  and  the  air  is  then  so 
filled  with  birds  that  one  can  scarcely  see  across 
the  lake.  Many  drop  back  to  the  water,  while 
others  begin  their  day's  wanderings.  Again  they 
all  arise;  a  part  take  leave;  those  remaining  re- 
turn to  the  water,  but  within  half  an  hour  all 
have  gone. 

Some  mornings  they  fly  in  one  direction,  on 
others  in  another  direction.  I  think  that  they 
are  apt  to  fly  towards  the  point  from  which  the 
wind  blows.  Their  favorite  feeding  grounds  are 
freshly  plowed  fields.  Often  they  follow  directly 
behind  the  plow,  and  it  is  a  charming  sight  to 
see  the  snowy-plumaged  birds  hover  over  the 
25 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

plowman  and  alight  in  furrows  to  pick  up  grubs 
exposed  in  the  black  earth.  In  this  way  they 
destroy  many  harmful  insects. 

The  return  to  the  lake  begins  late  in  the  after- 
noon. At  times  they  fly  in  even  rows,  perhaps 
half  a  mile  in  length  but  not  more  than  three  or 
four  gulls  deep.  Or  they  may  come  home  in  V- 
shaped  flocks  with  as  many  as  seventy-five  or 
one  hundred  Gulls  in  each  arm  of  the  V.  But 
whether  in  long,  billowy  lines  or*  even,  flying 
wedges,  the  flights  of  the  Gulls  teach  us  in  what 
an  orderly  manner  birds  perform  these  little 
journeys. 

With  the  Robins,  Crackles,  Swallows,  Swifts 
and  Gulls,  these  daily  trips  to  and  from  their 
sleeping  quarters  precede  the  real  migration  to 
their  winter  homes,  where,  in  some  cases,  new 
roosts  may  be  found  and  new  flocks  formed. 

There  are  other  birds  which  gather  nightly  in 
certain  roosting  places  but  which  migrate  little, 
if  at  all.  Among  these  are  Herons,  which  every 
evening  gather  in  some  marshy  woods  or  thicket 
which  perhaps  has  been  used  many  years. 
26 


FIRST  FLIGHTS 

Crows  flock  together  in  great  roosts  in  the 
winter.  Some  Crow  roosts  have  as  many  as  two 
or  three  hundred  thousand  tenants  nightly. 
When  the  birds  leave  in  the  morning  they  fly  low 
and  search  for  food.  When  they  return  in  the 
afternoon  they  fly  high,  heading  straight  for  the 
roost.  Hence  the  expression,  "as  the  Crow  flies." 

Like  the  Chimney  Swifts,  Crows  do  not  enter 
their  sleeping  place  until  practically  the  last  bird 
has  arrived.  In  the  meantime  they  alight  on  the 
ground  in  near-by  fields.  As  bird  after  bird 
returns  and  drops  down  among  the  others,  the 
ground  becomes  black  with  Crows.  I  have  seen 
several  acres  covered  with  them.  They  seem 
to  have  very  little  to  say  about  their  day's  ex- 
perience. It  is  almost  dark  before  they  go  to 
bed.  Then  they  arise  from  the  ground  and  in 
orderly  procession  silently  fly  to  their  roost  in 
the  woods. 

Beside  these  daily  journeys  to  and  from  their 

sleeping  place  some  birds,  during  the  winter, 

wander  about  over  land  and  sea.    Their  chief 

object  in  life  at  this  time  is  to  hunt  for  food,  and 

27 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

they  go  almost  any  place  where  it  may  be  found. 

So  in  the  winter  we  may  have  visits  from 
Crossbills,  or  Pine  Grosbeaks.  These  birds  feed 
on  the  seeds  of  cone-bearing  trees.  When  there 
is  an  abundant  supply  of  this  kind  of  food  in  the 
Far  North  we  see  very  few  or  none  of  them. 
But  when  the  pines  and  spruces  produce  a  small 
crop,  then  the  Crossbills  and  Grosbeaks  come  to 
us  in  unusual  numbers. 

It  is  said  that  Herring  Gulls  have  been  known 
to  follow  a  steamer  across  the  Atlantic.  They 
were  not  attracted  by  the  steamer,  we  may  be 
sure,  but  by  the  food  which  was  thrown  over- 
board from  it. 

The  great  Albatross  ranges  so  far  over  the 
southern  seas  that  it  is  called  the  Wandering 
Albatross.  In  the  museum  of  Brown  University 
there  is  a  mounted  specimen  of  a  Wandering 
Albatross,  which  shows  how  well  this  name  is 
deserved.  When  captured  off  the  coast  of  Chili, 
on  December  20,  1847,  the  bird  had  a  small  vial 
hung  on  a  string  about  its  neck.  This  vial  con- 
tained a  piece  of  paper,  on  which  was  written 
28 


FIRST  FLIGHTS 

the  fact  that  the  bird  had  been  caught  and  the 
vial  attached  on  December  12,  1847,  by  the  cap- 
tain of  a  whaling  vessel  when  it  was  about  800 
miles  off  the  coast  of  New  Zealand.  The  Alba- 
tross had  therefore  wandered  about  3400  miles 
in  eight  days. 

But  if  a  bird  is  a  migrant,  its  wanderings  or 
its  daily  trips  to  and  from  the  roost  will  end 
when  the  call  comes  for  the  great  journey.  Let 
us  now  see  when  this  call  will  come. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  STUDY 

Have  you  ever  seen  birds  go  to  roost?  What 
kind  of  birds  were  they?  Were  they  flying  singly 
or  in  flocks  ?  Where  did  they  pass  the  night  ?  When 
did  they  leave  in  the  morning? 

If  you  have  ever  found  a  Robin's  nest,  describe 
the  situation  in  which  it  was  built  What  did  it 
contain?  Do  you  know  whether  it  was  a  first  or 
second  brood?  Have  you  ever  seen  a  summer 
Robin  roost?  When  do  Robins  begin  to  go  to  such 
a  roost?  If  you  have  ever  seen  a  European  Starling, 
compare  it  with  a  Crackle.  When  was  the  Starling 
brought  to  this  country,  and  where  were  the  first- 
comers  released?  Is  the  Starling  considered  a  de- 
29 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

sirable  bird?  How  do  Swallows  feed?  What  is 
their  principal  fare?  What  makes  them  among 
the  most  valuable  birds  to  man?  Have  you  ever 
seen  a  Chimney  Swift's  nest?  Where  was  it  placed? 
Where  did  these  Swifts  build  their  nests  before  there 
were  chimneys  in  this  country?  Describe  a  Chimney 
Swift's  nest.  How  do  the  birds  gather  the  twigs 
of  which  it  is  composed?  What  is  used  to  glue 
them  together?  Have  you  ever  seen  Crows  flying 
over  on  a  winter  morning?  Were  they  flying  high 
or  low?  Have  you  seen  them  returning  in  the  after- 
noon ?  At  what  height  were  they  flying  then  ?  Why 
should  they  not  fly  at  the  same  height  both  morning 
and  afternoon?  Have  you  ever  seen  Gulls  following 
a  vessel?  Do  you  think  the  same  Gulls  followed 
it  day  after  day?  In  what  ways  are  Gulls  use- 
ful to  man?  What  famous  poem  mentions  the 
Albatross? 


B 


IV 

THE  BIRDS'  AIR  LINE 
EFORE  we  knew  as  much  about  the  earth 


as  we  do  now,  the  complete  disappearance 
of  many  birds  in  the  fall  and  winter  was  con- 
sidered a  great  mystery.  With  us  one  day,  they 
were  gone  the  next.  Then,  months  later,  they 
suddenly  reappeared.  Where  had  they  been? 

At  one  time  it  was  thought  that  some  birds 
flew  to  the  moon.  Others,  particularly  the  Swal- 
lows and  Swifts,  were  believed  to  fly  into  the 
mud  and  pass  the  winter  hibernating  like  frogs ; 
while  the  European  Cuckoo  was  said,  in  the  fall, 
to  turn  into  a  Hawk. 

Why  birds  were  ever  thought  to  winter  in 
the  moon  it  is  difficult  to  say;  but  that  Swallows 
were  considered  to  take  refuge  in  the  mud  at  this 
season  is  not  so  surprising.  We  have  seen  how 
these  birds  sleep  in  the  reeds  in  the  marshes. 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

Anyone  finding  them  in  bed,  as  it  were,  before 
they  were  fully  awake  in  the  morning,  might  be 
pardoned  for  thinking  that  they  had  just  come 
out  of  the  ground  and  were  perched  in  the  reeds 
waiting  for  their  feathers  to  dry. 

The  belief  that  in  the  fall  the  European 
Cuckoo  turned  into  the  Sparrow-hawk  of  the 
same  country  is  doubtless  to  be  explained  by  the 
fact  that  the  Cuckoo  leaves  for  the  south  in  the 
summer;  while  the  Hawk,  which  it  resembles  in 
color,  stays  throughout  the  winter. 

Now  that  we  have  explored  nearly  every 
corner  of  the  earth,  there  are  only  a  few  birds 
whose  "routes  of  migration,"  as  they  are  called, 
are  unknown.  We  have  learned  that  these  routes 
are  followed  just  as  regularly  as  though,  like  our 
highways  and  railroads,  they  could  be  seen. 

The  birds'  air  line,  as  we  shall  see,  is  not  always 
the  shortest  distance  between  two  points.  It  was 
not  made  in  a  day,  or  by  one  surveyor.  Many, 
many  years  have  passed  since  the  first  bird  trav- 
elers on  any  one  of  the  many  air  lines  followed 
by  birds  began  their  spring  and  fall  journeys; 
32 


THE  BIRDS'  AIR  LINE 

and  what  was  a  good  direction  at  one  time  may 
not  have  been  at  another. 

HIGHWAYS  AND    HABIT 

It  seems  to  be  a  law  among  bird  travelers  that 
every  bird  must  follow  the  route  over  which  its 
parents  flew.  This  the  ornithologist  calls  "in- 
herited habit."  It  is  just  as  though  children  born 
in  Arizona  whose  ancestors  had  emigrated  across 
the  continent  from  New  York  City  should  go 
to  New  York  City  over  the  route  made  by  their 
father,  grandfather,  and  great-grandfather,  and 
perhaps  great-great-grandfather. 

The  first  part  of  this  route  over  which  their 
great-great-grandfather  traveled  may  have  led 
to  what  was  then  the  western  border  of  civiliza- 
tion at  Pittsburgh.  Then  their  great-grand- 
father, like  a  true  pioneer,  pushed  onward  to 
St.  Louis.  Here  their  grandfather  was  born,  and 
when  he  became  a  man  he  emigrated  to  the  great 
wheat-growing  region  of  Dakota.  In  Dakota 
their  father  was  born  and  when  he  grew  up  he 
moved  to  the  copper  mines  of  southern  Arizona. 
33 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

Perhaps  these  children  may  themselves  emigrate 
to  the  forests  of  Oregon.  Then  what  a  zigzag 
journey  they  would  make  to  New  York  if  like 
birds  they  should  be  guided  only  by  "inherited 
habit"! 

Here  comes  in  the  difference  between  reason 
and  instinct.  Instinct  would  send  our  children 
from  Oregon  to  Arizona,  from  Arizona  to  Da- 
kota, from  Dakota  to  Missouri,  and  finally 
through  Pittsburgh  to  New  York  City. 

Reason  directs  them  to  buy  a  ticket  over  the 
most  direct  railway  line  between  Oregon  and 
New  York  City,  and  they  thus  make  their  jour- 
ney in  the  shortest  possible  time. 

Let  us  see  how  many,  many  miles  the  Cliff 
Swallows  of  Nova  Scotia  might  save  if  they  were 
to  buy  a  ticket  over  what  we  may  call  the  short, 
Reason  Route,  instead  of  the  long,  Instinct  Way. 

THE   CLIFF   SWALLOW'S   ROUTE 

The  Cliff  Swallow  winters  in  South  America 
and  in  summer  is  found  over  most  of  the  United 
States,  except  Florida,  and  north  to  the  Arctic 
34 


THE  BIRDS'  AIR  LINE 

regions.  If  we  look  at  a  map  we  will  see  that 
Nova  Scotia  is  directly  north  of  Colombia  in 
northern  South  America.  The  Cliff  Swallows 
pass  through  Colombia  on  their  northern  jour- 
ney. We  might,  therefore,  expect  them  to  follow 
one  of  the  most  traveled  of  birds'  air  lines.  This 
leads  across  the  Caribbean  Sea  and  Gulf  of 
Mexico  and  up  the  Atlantic  coast  through  New 
England  to  their  summer  homes.  But  instead 
of  going  by  this,  the  most  direct  way,  they  go 
westward  through  Panama,  then  northwest 
through  Central  America  and  Mexico.  It  is  not 
until  they  reach  Texas  that  they  fly  directly 
toward  the  place  they  desire  to  reach.  They 
cross  the  United  States  by  going  up  the  Missis- 
sippi and  Ohio  Valleys,  and  avoid  the  south- 
eastern states  entirely. 

Why  is  it  that  they  thus  travel  two  thousand 
miles  more  than  is  necessary?  We  can  only  be- 
lieve that  they  are  following  the  route  made  by 
their  ancestors.  The  Cliff  Swallow  is  a  bird  of 
the  West.  There  it  builds  its  singular,  bottle- 
shaped  mud  nest  under  overhanging  cliffs  and 
35 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

ledges.  But  in  the  East,  where  it  is  much  less 
common,  it  places  its  close-set  rows  of  mud  tene- 
ments beneath  the  eaves  of  barns  and  other  out- 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  THE  MOURNING  WARBLER. 

Like  the  Cliff  Swallow  some  Mourning  Warblers  travel  from 
their  summer  home  in  Nova  Scotia  to  their  winter  home  in 
Northern  South  America  through  Texas,  Mexico  and  Central 
America,  instead  of  through  Florida  and  the  West  Indies,  a 
route  2,000  miles  shorter.  Dotted  area — summer  home.  Black 
area — winter  home.  Arrows — migration  route. 


buildings.    So  it  is  probable  that  Cliff  Swallows, 

or,  as  they  are  also  called,  Eave  Swallows,  have 

36 


THE  BIRDS'  AIR  LINE 

come  from  the  West  to  the  East  in  recent  times. 
In  migrating,  therefore,  they  go  back  over  the 
old  Instinct  Way,  or  over  the  trail  of  their  an- 
cestors. 

Long,  roundabout  journeys  like  this  are  the 
exception.  I  have  spoken  of  them  because  they 
seem  to  explain  better  than  more  direct  air  lines 
how  these  wonderful  highways,  thousands  of 
miles  in  length,  may  grow,  little  by  little,  from 
small  beginnings. 

MAIN   TRAVELED   ROADS 

Now  let  us  trace  some  of  the  more  popular 
routes.  If  we  were  studying  the  travels  of 
European  as  well  as  of  American  birds  we  should 
learn  some  of  the  most  interesting  facts.  For 
instance,  we  should  find  that  in  flying  from 
Europe  to  Africa  birds  cross  the  Mediterra- 
nean Sea  at  a  point  where  the  water  is  so 
shallow  that  it  is  believed  the  two  continents 
were  formerly  connected  there.  The  land  bridge 
which,  it  is  thought,  formerly  guided  the 
birds  in  their  flight  has  disappeared,  but  the 
4  37 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

habit  of  crossing  at  this  particular  place  still 
remains. 

Though  I  do  not  know  of  any  cases  of  this 
kind  in  America,  we  shall  find  equally  interest- 
ing facts  concerning  the  air  lines  of  our  birds. 
For  example,  how  do  you  suppose  the  little 
Wheatear,  no  larger  than  a  Bluebird,  formed 
the  habit  of  migrating  from  Africa  to  Green- 
land? Probably  he  comes  by  way  of  England 
and  Iceland,  but  at  the  best  it  is  a  long  journey 
and  seems  to  take  the  bird  much  farther  than  it 
is  necessary  to  go.  In  the  fall  he  goes  back  to 
winter  in  Africa. 

Doubtless  some  European  waterbirds  visit  us 
every  year,  but  the  Wheatear,  so  far  as  I  know, 
is  the  only  land  bird  which  migrates  regularly 
between  North  America  and  Africa.  With  this 
exception  no  North  American  land  birds  leave 
the  Western  Hemisphere  in  their  migrations. 
Their  motto  might  be  "See  America  first !"  Cer- 
tainly many  of  them  see  a  large  part  of  it. 

The  birds  of  the  western  United  States  are  not 
such  great  travelers  as  those  of  the  eastern  part 
38 


THE  BIRDS'  AIR  LINE 

of  our  country.  Some  of  them  only  travel  from 
the  higher  parts  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  or 
Sierras,  where  they  nest,  to  the  low,  warm  valleys 
in  which  they  winter. 

Those  that  leave  the  United  States  go  into 
Mexico.  Some  continue  their  journey  as  far 
south  as  Guatemala,  but  few  go  farther.  They 
all  travel  overland,  and  do  not  therefore  en- 
counter the  dangers  to  which  many  of  our  east- 
ern migrants  are  exposed. 

It  is  surprising  that  most  of  the  bird  travelers 
of  Alaska  migrate  to  the  eastern  United  States. 
Some  of  them  actually  go  to  their  winter  homes 
by  way  of  Florida  and  the  West  Indies!  But 
when  we  examine  a  map  we  find  that  a  large 
part  of  Alaska  is  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountain 
system.  These  mountains,  like  a  great  wall,  have 
prevented  the  western  birds  from  crossing  to 
their  eastern  side;  while  the  bird  pioneers  from 
the  East  have  found  nothing  to  prevent  them 
from  taking  up  fresh  claims  until  they  reached 
this  same  great  wall  in  the  far  Northwest.  So 
far  as  birds  are  concerned,  therefore,  Alaska  is 
39 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

like  a  small  United  States.  The  birds  that  live 
west  of  the  mountains,  on  what  is  called  the 
Pacific  slope,  travel  southward  with  other  west- 
ern birds.  Those  found  east  of  the  mountains 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  THE  BLACKPOLL. 

The  Blackpoll  nests  as  far  north  as  Alaska  and  travels  7,000 
miles  to  winter  in  Northern  South  America.  Dotted  area — 
summer  home.  Black  area — winter  home.  Arrows — migra- 
tion route. 

40 


THE  BIRDS'  AIR  LINE 

travel  southeastward  and  then  join  in  the  jour- 
neys of  eastern  birds. 

This  is  the  route  the  little  Blackpoll  Warbler 
follows  in  his  seven-thousand-mile  journey  from 
Alaska  to  northern  South  America.  There  is  no 
question  about  the  straightness  of  his  air  line! 
He  lays  his  course  directly  across  Cuba  to 
Jamaica  and  from  Jamaica  to  Colombia  in  north- 
ern South  America.  That  is  a  journey  anyone 
might  be  proud  of.  What  a  marvel  it  is 
that  it  should  be  made  regularly  twice  each 
year  by  a  creature  only  five  and  a  half  inches 
long! 

In  their  travels  across  the  United  States,  birds 
seem  to  follow  coast  lines  and  river  valleys. 
They  must  pass  through  a  country  which  will 
supply  them  with  food  when  they  pause  to  rest. 
Even  if  they  fly  over  us  we  cannot  expect  them  to 
stop  if  we  can  offer  them  nothing  to  eat. 

Near  my  home  at  Englewood,  New  Jersey,  is 
a  small  ice  pond.  Sometimes  the  dam  which 
makes  it  is  raised  and  the  water  runs  out.  This 
happened  once  in  August,  a  season  when  many 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

shore  birds  ^re  migrating.  When  the  pond  was 
full  I  had  seen  none  of  these  birds.  But  the  very 
day  that  the  pond  became  a  field  of  mud,  large 
numbers  of  Sandpipers  of  several  species  stopped 
to  feast  on  the  little  aquatic  animals  which  had 
been  left  stranded.  So  we  cannot  always  tell 
what  kind  of  birds  may  be  traveling  far  over- 
head in  the  sky,  unless  we  have  some  way  of 
making  them  stop  and  call  on  us. 

When  we  follow  some  of  the  more  famous 
bird  travelers  in  their  journeys  we  shall  become 
familiar  with  the  routes  they  travel.  Now  we 
shall  outline  the  routes  of  only  those  migrants 
which  leave  the  eastern  United  States  in  the 
winter. 

One  route  leads  southward  and  southwestward 
into  Texas  and  Mexico,  Central  and  South 
America.  Another  does  not  enter  Texas  and 
Mexico  at  all,  northwestern  Florida  being  used 
as  the  port  from  which  many  birds  embark  on 
their  seven-thousand-mile  journey  across  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  to  Yucatan,  whence  Central 
America  is  followed  to  South  America. 
42 


THE  BIRDS'  AIR  LINE 

A  third  route,  which  we  have  seen  is  used  by 
the  Blackpoll,  passes  from  Florida  to  Cuba  and 
thence  to  Jamaica  and  over  the  Caribbean  Sea 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  THE  REDSTART. 

The  Redstart  nests  over  most  of  temperate  North  America  and 
goes  to  and  from  its  winter  home  in  the  West  Indies  and 
Northern  South  America  by  a  number  of  routes.  Dotted  area 
— summer  home.  Black  area — winter  home.  Arrows — migra- 
tion routes. 

43 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

to  South  America.  A  fourth  leads  from  Florida 
to  the  Bahamas.  A  fifth,  which  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  of  any,  crosses  the  Atlantic 
Coast  from  Nova  Scotia  to  South  America. 

Some  birds  spend  the  entire  winter  at  sea. 
Indeed  they  may  never  put  foot  on  land  except 
when  they  visit  it  to  nest.  Frequently  in  going 
by  steamer  to  Florida  or  Cuba  I  have  seen  thou- 
sands of  those  little  web-footed  Snipe,  the  Red 
and  the  Northern  Phalaropes.  They  were  from 
fifty  to  one  hundred  miles  off  shore,  riding  the 
great  waves  like  corks.  Here  they  live  from 
August  until  May,  feeding  on  small  forms  of 
sea-life  and  sleeping  in  the  "cradle  of  the  deep." 
With  them  were  many  Loons.  We  think  of 
these  weird-voiced  birds  as  solitary  dwellers  on 
woodland  lakes,  but  off  the  coast  of  Virginia  I 
have  seen  as  many  as  5,000  in  a  day. 

The  swallow-like  Petrels  which,  during  the 
summer,  so  often  follow  vessels  in  the  North 
Atlantic,  nest  in  February  and  March  in  certain 
islands  in  the  Antarctic  Ocean.  When  their 
young  are  reared  they  all  travel  northward  to 
44 


THE  BIRDS'  AIR  LINE 

spend  what  is  really  their  winter  off  our  coasts. 
Unless  storms  should  blow  them  ashore,  they 
probably  never  touch  land  from  the  time  they 
leave  their  home  in  the  Far  South  until  they 
return  to  it. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  STUDY 

What  bird  travelers  have  you  seen  in  their  winter 
homes?  When  did  they  arrive?  Where  had  they 
come  from?  How  long  did  they  stay?  Do  you 
know  where  any  of  our  summer  resident  birds  that 
come  to  us  from  the  south  in  the  spring  spend  the 
winter?  Trace  on  the  map  a  route  from  New  York 
City  to  Oregon  by  way  of  Pittsburgh,  St.  Louis, 
South  Dakota,  Arizona,  and  Oregon.  About  how 
much  longer  is  it  than  a  direct  line  from  Oregon 
to  New  York  City?  Trace  on  the  map  the  route 
followed  by  a  Cliff  Swallow  that  winters  in  South 
America  and  nests  in  Nova  Scotia.  What  European 
bird  travels  every  year  to  eastern  North  America? 
Where  do  many  of  the  migrating  birds  of  the  west- 
ern United  States  spend  the  winter?  Follow  on  the 
map  the  migration  route  of  the  Blackpoll  Warbler. 
Trace  on  the  map  some  of  the  principal  migration 
routes  of  bird  travelers  of  eastern  North  America. 
Mention  some  birds  that  spend  the  winter  at  sea. 
45 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

Have  you  ever  seen  a  Stormy  Petrel?  What  is  the 
origin  of  the  name  Petrel?  Where  do  many  of 
the  Petrels  nest  that  we  see  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
during  the  summer?  How  does  their  "time-table" 
differ  from  that  of  a  bird  -which  nests  in  North 
America  and  winters  in  the  Tropics? 


THE  BIRDS'  TIME-TABLE 

WHEN  we  consider  the  great  distances 
some  birds  travel  and  the  dangers  they 
encounter  by  the  way,  it  is  remarkable  that  they 
usually  arrive  on  time. 

That  the  daily  trips  to  and  from  the  roost 
should  be  made  regularly  is  not  surprising.  The 
birds  have  only  a  short  way  to  go,  and  they  leave 
soon  after  daybreak  and  return  just  before  dark. 
But  when,  year  after  year,  the  Bobolink,  the 
Baltimore  Oriole,  the  midget  Humming-bird, 
many  Warblers  and  other  birds  arrive  from 
journeys  thousands  of  miles  in  length  on  exactly 
or  nearly  the  same  day,  we  ask  how  they  can 
possibly  be  so  prompt. 

In  order  to  answer  this  question  we  must  know 

something  about  the  birds'  time-table.    Anyone 

who  has  studied  the  birds  about  his  home  for 

many  years  can  make  a  time-table  giving  the 

47 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

dates  of  the  arrival  and  departure  of  all  the 
migratory  birds  which  visit  him. 

In  this  time-table  we  will  notice  that  the  early 
birds — those  which  come  in  March — are  much 
less  prompt  than  the  later  ones — those  which 
come  in  May.  This  is  because  the  weather  of 
March  is  so  much  more  uncertain  than  that  of 
May.  In  some  years,  near  New  York  City, 
snow  covers  the  ground  and  the  ponds  are  frozen 
almost  until  April.  In  others,  the  snow  melts 
and  the  ice  disappears  before  the  middle  of 
March.  But  by  May  i,  the  weather  is  more 
settled.  The  first  week  in  May  of  one  year  is 
much  like  the  first  week  in  May  of  another  year. 

So  it  follows  that  the  exact  time  of  the  arrival 
of  the  birds  is  more  or  less  dependent  on  the 
weather.  But  it  is  not  the  weather  which  in- 
duces them  to  start.  What  can  the  Baltimore 
Oriole  in  Central  America  know  about  the 
weather  near  New  York  City?  Not  a  thing.  He 
leaves  Central  America  without  regard  to  the 
weather  there  or  any  other  place.  But  his  jour- 
ney may  be  delayed  by  bad  weather  or  hastened 
48 


THE  BIRDS'  TIME,TABLE 

by  favorable  weather.  If,  therefore,  he  finds 
the  weather  of  one  year  much  the  same  as  that 
of  another  year,  he  is  apt  to  reach  the  same 
place  at  about  the  same  time  year  after  year. 
Sometimes,  encouraged  by  an  unusually  mild 
period,  birds  come  so  far  ahead  of  their  usual 
time  that  they  are  trapped  by  the  sudden  re- 
turn of  cold  weather.  Then,  if  they  do  not  re- 
treat, they  may  suffer  for  lack  of  food.  I  have 
seen  Geese  on  the  coast  of  Texas  migrating 
northward  in  large  numbers,  urged  onward  by 
a  warm  wave. 

The  next  day,  to  my  surprise,  they  all  came 
flying  back.  But  the  day  following  a  severe 
"norther"  suddenly  arrived.  The  Geese  had  evi- 
dently encountered  this  storm  and  been  driven 
back  by  it.  Observations  of  this  kind  lead  us 
to  believe  that  birds  are  not  such  good  weather 
prophets  as  they  are  commonly  supposed  to  be. 

The  first  birds  to  come  in  the  spring  are, 

generally  speaking,  the  last  ones  to  leave  in  the 

fall.      In   early   March   we   look   for   Robins, 

Crackles,  and  Red-winged  Blackbirds,  and  there 

49 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

will  be  additions  to  the  ranks  of  the  Song  Spar- 
rows and  Bluebirds  that  have  passed  the  winter. 
These  same  birds  will  remain  until  November 
or  even  early  December. 

When  the  frost  leaves  the  ground  so  that  the 
Woodcock  may  probe  for  his  favorite  fare  of 
earthworms,  this  great-eyed  Snipe  of  the  woods 
will  appear;  and  he  may  stay  with  us  until  frost 
seals  his  hunting  ground. 

Almost  as  soon  as  the  ponds,  lakes,  and  rivers 
open,  Ducks  and  Geese  return,  and,  in  the  fall, 
many  remain  until  they  are  actually  "frozen 
out"  by  the  ice  which  forces  them  to  go  further 
south. 

Now  none  of  the  birds  I  have  mentioned  makes 
very  long  journeys.  Robins,  Crackles,  Red- 
wings and  Woodcocks  do  not  leave  the  United 
States,  and  the  greater  number  of  Ducks  winter 
within  our  boundaries.  In  fact,  all  these  birds 
may  be  found  as  far  north  as  Virginia.  There- 
fore, they  are  in  the  first  rank  of  the  vast  army 
of  birds  which  begins  its  northward  march  in  the 
early  spring.  They  may  not  start  any  sooner 
50 


THE  BIRDS'  TIME-TABLE 

than  the  Bobolink  in  southern  Brazil,  but  they 
have  a  much  shorter  journey  to  make  and  so  get 
here  first. 

THE   BIRDS'   PROCESSION 

What  a  marvelous  army  it  is!    Four  or  five 
thousand  miles  separate  the  advance  guard  and 


BIRDS  AND  SEASONS. 

The  Woodcock  comes  when  the  frost  leaves  the  ground  and  he 
can  probe  for  worms. 


rear  guard.  Between  them  are  untold  myriads 
of  migrant  Flycatchers,  Warblers,  Vireos, 
Thrushes,  and  other  birds.  Some  are  already 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

under  way,  some  are  waiting  the  call  to  "fall  in," 
but  all  in  their  proper  season  will  take  up  the 
march  and  at  their  due  date  reach  their  destina- 
tion. 


THE  ADVANCE  GUARD. 

Migrating  male  Red-winged  Blackbirds.  They  are  among  the 
first  birds  to  come  in  the  spring,  the  males  arriving  before  the 
females. 


Let  us  take  a  position,  say  near  New  York 
City,  and  watch  this  vast  army  pass.  If  we  were 
in  Washington  we  should  see  it  about  a  week 
earlier ;  while  in  Boston  it  would  be  a  week  later. 

52 


THE  BIRDS'  TIME-TABLE 

It  is  a  joyous  day  when,  early  in  March,  we 
first  hear  the  martial  music  of  the  Crackles  and 
Red-wings,  and  the  cheery  salute  of  the  Song 
Sparrow.  Not  a  bud  has  broken,  not  a  blade  of 
grass  grown.  The  birds  bring  us  the  earliest 
news  that  spring  is  near. 

Soon  we  shall  hear  the  fifing  of  the  Meadow- 
lark  and  the  musical  whistle  of  the  Fox  Spar- 
row ;  while  those  who  know  its  haunts  may  hear 
the  strange  twilight  song  and  see  the  sky  dance 
of  the  Woodcock. 

Late  in  the  month,  when  in  some  warm  place 
gnats  are  floating  in  the  sunlight,  the  Phoebe, 
earliest  of  Flycatchers,  will  be  there  to  devour 
them.  In  early  April  the  chant  of  the  Field 
Sparrow,  the  bright,  ringing  notes  of  the  Vesper 
Sparrow,  and  the  gurgling,  glassy  call  of  the 
Cowbird  will  be  added  to  the  music  of  the 
feathered  band.  With  them  will  be  Chipping 
and  White-throated  Sparrows,  Myrtle  War- 
blers, Tree  Swallows  and  Hermit  Thrushes. 

Thus  far  the  army  has  advanced  rank  after 
rank  in  orderly  array.  All  the  birds  in  it  have 
s  53 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

come  from  their  winter  quarters  in  the  southern 
United  States,  but  about  April  15,  the  Barn 
Swallow  appears.  He  is  the  first  bird  to  reach  us 
from  tropical  America.  Like  an  aerial  scout  he 


SPRING'S  FIRST  FLYCATCHER. 
The  Phoebe  comes  when  winged  insects  appear. 

dashes  ahead  of  the  slower  columns.  A  little 
later  he  is  joined  by  the  Cliff  and  Bank  Swal- 
lows. Then,  if  we  are  so  fortunate  as  to  have 
Purple  Martins  as  tenants,  we  may  expect  to 
54 


THE  BIRDS'  TIME-TABLE 

hear  them  chattering  happily  about  the  houses 
we  have  offered  them  as  homes. 

Some  morning  about  April  25,  when  we  open 
our  windows  to  the  warm  sun  rays,  the  House 
Wren  will  greet  us  with  his  merry  little  trill. 
He  is  bobbing  in  and  out  of  a  bird  house — per- 
haps the  very  one  he  nested  in  last  year. 

A  Catbird  sings  from  the  heart  of  a  lilac  bush, 
while  from  the  topmost  branch  of  some  tall  tree 
the  Brown  Thrasher,  in  loud,  ringing  notes,  tells 
us  that  he  is  home  again. 

That  evening  we  may  hear  the  twittering  of 
Chimney  Swifts  just  back  from  Central  Amer- 
ica, and  see  their  bow-and-arrow-like  forms  sail- 
ing overhead. 

The  army  now  is  moving  rapidly  and  with 
closed  ranks.  Company  after  company  hurries 
by;  others  stop  to  camp  with  us.  It  is  an  exciting 
time  for  us  on  the  lookout.  Sharp  indeed  are 
the  eyes  and  keen  the  ears  that  see  and  hear  all 
that  is  to  be  seen  and  heard.  Between  May  7 
and  12,  when  the  migration  is  at  its  height,  as 
many  as  one  hundred  and  forty  different  kinds 
55 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

of  birds  have  been  seen  by  one  person  on  one 
day.  This  was  at  Oberlin,  Ohio,  a  place  through 
which  many  birds  pass.  For  we  have  seen  that 
there  are  certain  lines  of  flight,  or  highways, 
which  are  followed  by  birds  in  their  travels. 
On  the  Atlantic  coast  it  is  rare  to  see  more  than 
one  hundred  different  kinds  of  birds  in  a  single 
day  during  migration. 

The  first  days  of  May  will  bring  the  Rose- 
breasted  Grosbeak,  Baltimore  Oriole,  and  Scar- 
let Tanager,  all  famous  colorbearers.  Then  we 
may  look  for  the  great  Warbler  cohorts.  These 
active  little  wood-sprites  are  the  most  beautiful 
and  the  most  numerous  of  any  of  the  members 
of  the  great  feathered  army.  Over  thirty  dif- 
ferent kinds  and  an  incalculable  number  of  in- 
dividuals will  march  by  us.  How  few  people 
know  that  every  year  we  are  visited  by  these 
gems  of  bird  life!  Although  among  the  smallest 
members  of  the  army,  as  a  family  they  make  the 
longest  journeys. 

The  greater  number  spend  the  winter  in  the 
Tropics  and  the  summer  in  northern  New  Eng- 
56 


THE  BIRDS'  TIME-TABLE 

land  and  Canada.  But  in  spite  of  their  size  and 
the  great  distance  they  travel  they  closely  follow 
the  time-table.  Generally  it  will  tell  us  within 
a  day  or  two  when  to  expect  them. 

The  Warblers  form  the  rear  guard  of  the 
army.  After  May  20,  few  migrants  will  arrive, 
and  in  early  June  only  stragglers  will  be  seen. 

From  the  beginning,  if  we  have  watched 
closely,  we  have  noticed  several  things.  First, 
we  have  found  that  the  male  birds  come  before 
the  female.  Remember  that  all  the  Red-wings 
in  the  early  March  flocks  had  red  shoulder 
marks;  that  the  Crackles  were  all  large  and 
glossy;  that  the  Cowbirds  had  brownish  heads 
and  shining  bodies.  When  the  male  and  female 
are  alike  in  color  and  cannot  therefore  be  distin- 
guished, remember  how  often  our  attention  has 
been  drawn  to  a  newly  arrived  bird  by  its  song. 
Since  the  female  rarely  sings,  we  may  safely  say 
that  any  bird  we  hear  singing  is  a  male;  and 
thus,  even  when  he  is  colored  like  his  mate,  we 
know  that  the  male  is  the  first  to  come. 

With  the  earlier  birds  the  female  does  not 
57 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

come  until  a  week  or  ten  days  after  the  male. 
The  male  Red-wing,  for  example,  returns  to  the 
marsh  in  which  he  and  his  mate  lived  the  year 
before  and  calls  his  kong-quer-ree  many  times 
before  she  hears  him  and  comes  to  choose  a  nest- 
ing place. 

Then  we  will  also  see  that  while  many  birds 
march  on  to  more  northern  homes  others  break 
ranks  and  make  their  homes  with  us.  These  the 
ornithologist  calls  "Summer  Residents,"  while 
those  that  pass  onward  he  calls  "Transient 
Visitants." 

By  June  i,  the  invading  hosts  have  taken  pos- 
session of  the  country.  Some  have  settled  in  the 
north ;  but  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the  shores 
of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  no  place  is  without  some 
members  of  the  great  army. 

Where,  in  the  winter,  all  was  silent,  we  now 
hear  the  sweet  voices  of  many  birds.  How 
peaceful  they  seem  as  they  build  their  nests  and 
rear  their  young!  But  in  truth  they  are  valiant 
fighters;  for  this  bird  army  has  come  to  protect 
us  from  our  insect  enemies.  All  summer  long 
58 


THE  BIRDS'  TIME-TABLE 

they  will  carry  on  constant  warfare  against  the 
caterpillars,  cut-worms,  weevils,  and  other 
harmful  insects,  which,  if  they  were  not  preyed 
on  by  birds,  would  destroy  our  crops. 

RETURNING   TO  THE   WINTER   HOME 

No  sooner  has  the  invasion  ended  than  prepa- 
rations for  the  retreat  to  winter  quarters  begin. 
We  have  already  seen  that  in  early  June  the 
Crackles  and  Robins  drill  their  families  for  the 
great  journey  by  daily  trips  to  and  from  the 
roosting  places.  In  July  the  young  Swallows 
are  given  their  lessons;  and  late  in  that  month 
the  Bobolink  actually  begins  his  southern  mi- 
gration. By  August  20,  the  retreat  is  well  under 
way  and  from  that  time  until  September  30,  our 
woods  are  again  thronged  with  traveling  War- 
blers, Vireos,  Flycatchers,  and  other  birds.  Most 
of  them  have  changed  the  bright  uniform  of 
spring  for  a  duller  coat  in  which  we  may  find  it 
difficult  to  recognize  them. 

In  October  they  will  be  followed  by  the  Jun- 
cos  and  Tree  Sparrows;  and  in  November,  if 
59 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

food  is  scarce  at  the  north,  we  may  hope  to  see 
Crossbills,  Redpolls,  and  even  Pine  Grosbeaks. 
All  these  late  arrivals  will  stay  with  us  until 
spring.  By  the  ornithologist  they  are  classed  as 
"Winter  Visitants." 

Birds  like  the  Golden  Plover  and  Turnstone, 
that  have  to  cross  two  thousand  or  more  miles 
of  ocean  and  are  not  believed  to  alight  upon  the 
water,  cannot,  of  course,  rest  by  the  way.  But 
the  Warblers  and  other  small  birds  that  migrate 
chiefly  over  land  evidently  rest  for  several  days 
after  making  an  all-night  flight.  During  this 
time  they  may  travel  a  little  by  day,  as  they 
hunt  insects  from  tree  to  tree,  or  if  they  have 
happened  to  come  down  into  some  small  piece 
of  woodland  such  as  is  found  in  city  parks,  they 
may  remain  in  the  same  place  until  they  are 
ready  to  continue  their  journey. 

While  they  are  waiting  they  may  be  passed  by 
other  birds  of  their  own  kind,  and  while  these 
birds  are  resting  somewhere  on  ahead  they  may 
in  turn  fly  on  ahead  of  them.  An  individual 
bird  may  therefore  fly  four  or  five  hundred  miles 
60 


THE  BIRDS'  TIME-TABLE 

in  one  flight,  but  because  of  these  rests  between 
flights  the  species  to  which  it  belongs  does  not 
make  anything  like  this  rate  of  speed. 

Professor  Cooke's  studies  for  the  Biological 
Survey  at  Washington  have  told  us  more  about 
the  speed  at  which  the  bird  army  advances  than 
we  knew  before.  Thus  he  has  found  that  for 
the  first  month  of  their  northward  journey, 
Robins  make  an  average  advance  of  only  thir- 
teen miles  a  day.  The  next  ten  days  they  go 
forward  at  double  this  pace.  Then,  as  the  sea- 
son becomes  rapidly  warmer,  the  rate  rises  to 
fifty,  and  soon  to  seventy  miles  a  day.  This 
increase  in  speed  does  not  mean  that  the  Robin 
flies  faster  but  that  its  rests  are  shorter. 

The  same  authority  tells  us  that  when  travel- 
ing from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  Minnesota, 
Blackpoll  Warblers  average  only  thirty  to  thirty- 
five  miles  a  day,  but  before  they  reach  Alaska 
they  have  raised  this  rate  to  two  hundred  miles 
a  day.  So  while  the  journey  of  one  thousand 
miles  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  Minnesota 
takes  thirty  days,  the  two  thousand  five  hundred 
61 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

miles  from  Minnesota  to  Alaska  is  made  in  half 
that  time. 

Like  flowers  and  trees,  birds  are  closely  de- 
pendent on  the  weather.  How  little  change  there 
is  for  weeks  after  the  first  skunk  cabbage  is  seen, 
or  the  first  pussy-willow  blooms!  Then,  as  the 
days  grow  warmer,  the  woods  are  suddenly  filled 
with  flowers  and  the  trees  thickly  covered  with 
leaves;  and  with  these  come  the  birds. 

From  this  glance  at  the  birds'  time-table,  we 
have  learned  that  nearly  every  month  in  the  year 
has  its  bird  travelers.  This  is  one  of  the  reasons 
why  the  study  of  birds  is  so  interesting.  There 
is  always  something  happening  in  the  birds' 
world.  Someone  is  coming  or  someone  is  going. 
We  are  continually  greeting  old  friends  or  mak- 
ing new  ones. 

Will  it  not  add  greatly  to  our  pleasure  to 
know  where  they  have  been  and  whither  they  are 
bound? 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  STUDY 

What  is  the  first  bird  traveler  you  see  in  the 
spring?    When  does  it  generally  arrive?     Where 
62 


THE  BIRDS'  TIME-TABLE 

do  you  think  it  has  passed  the  winter?  At  about 
what  date  does  the  Robin  arrive?  Does  it  come 
alone  or  with  others?  When  does  it  become  com- 
mon? Do  th,e  first  arrivals  sing?  Why  should  birds 
arrive  with  more  regularity  in  May  than  in  March? 
How  does  weather  affect  the  migration  of  birds? 
Are  birds  good  weather  prophets?  Where  do  most 
of  the  first  arrivals  come  from?  Where  have  many 
of  the  last  arrivals  spent  the  winter?  Trace  on 
the  map  the  region  occupied  by  the  army  of  march- 
ing birds  when  the  first  ranks  are  passing  the  lati- 
tude of  New  York  City.  Mention  some  of  the  bird 
travelers  of  March;  of  April;  of  May.  When 
do  the  Warblers  come?  When  is  the  spring  mi- 
gration finished?  What  name  is  applied  to  those 
migrants  which  pass  us  to  nest  further  north?  To 
those  which  remain  to  nest  with  us?  When  does 
the  fall  migration  begin?  When  is  it  concluded? 


VI 

THE  DAY  FLYERS 

SOME  birds  travel  only  by  day;  others,  only 
by  night;  while  a  smaller  number  travel 
both  by  day  and  night. 

The  day  flyers  are  strong  of  wing.  Many  of 
them  live  in  the  open,  in  the  fields  or  marshes 
and  along  the  beaches.  Or  if  their  home  is  in 
the  trees,  they  do  not  hesitate  to  leave  them,  and 
often  make  long  flights  in  their  search  for  food. 
All  the  birds  which  gather  nightly  in  roosts, 
like  Robins,  Crackles,  Swallows,  Swifts,  and 
Crows,  are  day  flyers.  Blue  Jays,  Waxwings, 
Bluebirds,  many  of  the  Finches,  like  Crossbills, 
Redpolls,  and  Snowbuntings,  and  even  the  tiny 
Humming-birds  travel  by  day.  "But,"  you  may 
well  ask,  "why  should  not  all  birds  travel  when 
they  have  light  to  see  the  way,  and  sleep  at  night 
as  they  do  when  they  are  not  migrating?" 

The  answer  is  that  only  those  birds  venture 
64 


THE  DAY  FLYERS 

forth  by  day  which  can  fly  fast  enough  to  escape 
from  bird-killing  Hawks.  Not  all  Hawks  prey 
on  birds.  Most  of  them  live  chiefly  on  mice. 
But  Cooper's  Hawk,  the  Sharp-shinned  Hawk, 
and  the  Duck  Hawk  are  all  cannibals.  Woe  to 
the  bird  they  chase,  unless  it  is  swift  enough  to 
outdistance  them  or  escape  to  the  nearest  cover! 

Ducks  and  Geese,  most  Snipe  and  Plover,  and 
sea  birds  like  Gulls  and  Petrels,  travel  both  by 
day  and  night.  They  are  among  the  birds  which 
carry  fuel  for  the  engine  and  can  go  long  jour- 
neys without  stopping  for  a  fresh  supply. 

Have  you  ever  seen  birds  migrating  by  day? 
Sometimes  it  is  difficult  to  tell  whether  passing 
birds  are  simply  flying  to  or  from  the  roost  or 
whether  they  are  actually  embarked  on  their 
great  journey.  When,  on  some  late  summer  or 
early  fall  afternoon,  we  see  Swallows  hurrying 
southward,  we  might  well  imagine  that  they 
were  bound  for  their  winter  homes  instead  of 
their  beds  in  the  marshes.  But  when  we  hear 
the  clarion  honking  of  Wild  Geese,  and,  looking 
upward,  see  the  flying  wedge  cleaving  its  way 
65 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

steadily  and  rapidly  through  the  sky,  then  we 
know  that  we  are  seeing  real  bird  travelers  and 
we  wonder  where  they  have  come  from,  where 


THE  FLYING  WEDGE. 
Migrating  Wild  Geese. 

they  are  going,  and  how  they  can  possibly  find 
the  way. 

Then  in  the  early  spring,  when  the  black  flocks 
of  chattering  Red-wings  and  Crackles  come  and 
fly  onward  toward  the  north  we  know  that  they 
66 


THE  DAY  FLYERS 

belong  to  the  army  which  soon  will  take  posses- 
sion of  the  land. 

Robins  usually  migrate  in  scattered  com- 
panies, or  "loose  flocks"  as  they  are  termed. 
Bluebirds  have  much  the  same  habit  but  are 
perhaps  even  more  scattered.  When  they  are 
traveling  one  can  hear  their  soft  flight-note,  tur- 
wee,  turivee,  all  day  long  as  bird  after  bird 
passes  overhead. 

Crows  migrate  much  as  they  return  to  the 
roost.  In  March  and  October  one  may  see  single 
birds  or  groups  of  three  or  four  flying  rather 
high  and  as  though  they  had  an  important 
engagement  somewhere.  Such  flights  may  last 
all  day,  while  the  return-to-the-roost  flight, 
we  know,  takes  place  only  in  the  late  after- 
noon. 

Hawks  also  travel  in  this  way.  Some  days  in 
the  fall  one  or  more  Hawks  will  be  in  sight  from 
morning  until  evening,  all  flying  in  the  same 
direction  as  though  they  were  going  to  the  same 
place. 

In  the  spring,  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  moun- 
67 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

tains  of  Vera  Cruz,  Mexico,  I  have  seen  flocks 
containing  thousands  of  Hawks  migrating  north- 
ward. Although  closely  massed  they  did  not 
move  onward  in  a  solid  body  like  a  flock  of 


HAWKS  TRAVELING. 

Hawks  migrate  by  day   and   generally  travel   in   scattered  com- 
panies strung  out  through  the  sky.    A  "flight"  may  last  all  day. 

Blackbirds,  but,  like  a  swarm  of  bees,  circled 
about  and  among  each  other  in  a  most  remark- 
able and  confusing  manner.  However,  in  spite 
of  their  wheeling  they  all  passed  rapidly  north- 
ward and  were  soon  out  of  sight. 
68 


THE  DAY  FLYERS 

Some  years  later,  in  March,  in  the  same  part 
of  Mexico,  I  saw  a  flock  of  several  thousand 
White  Pelicans  migrating  northward.  These 
great  birds  measure  eight  feet  from  tip  to  tip 
of  their  outstretched  wings.  Like  the  Hawks, 
their  flight  was  not  in  a  direct  line,  but  in  a  series 
of  intertwining  loops.  The  sun  shone  on  their 
snowy  plumage,  and  against  the  background  of 
blue  mountains  they  made  a  sight  of  great 
beauty.  They  were  as  dazzling  white  as  snow- 
flakes  in  a  squall,  but  unlike  snowflakes  their 
motions  were  as  stately  and  dignified  as  those  of 
dancers  in  a  minuet.  So,  sweeping  gracefully 
around  each  other,  they,  too,  were  quickly  lost 
to  view. 

Why  birds  should  travel  in  this  manner  in- 
stead of  "as  the  Crow  flies,"  I  cannot  say.  It 
must  at  least  double  the  distance  they  cover.  We 
cannot  believe  they  keep  rounding  up  the  flock 
to  prevent  any  stragglers  from  being  lost,  for  we 
have  found  in  what  scattered  companies  Hawks, 
perhaps  of  the  same  kind  as  those  seen  in  Mexico, 
travel  in  the  fall.  Possibly  these  spring  flights 
6  69 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

may  have  something  to  do  with  the  courtship 
customs  of  that  time  of  year. 

A  PATHWAY   IN   THE  AIR 

It  is  most  interesting  to  observe  how  closely 
widely  separated  flocks  or  groups  of  migrating 
birds  follow  the  same  invisible  pathway  through 
the  air.  I  have  seen  Swallows  flying  northward 
in  small  bodies  which  followed  each  other  at 
short  intervals.  The  last  ones  to  pass  would  be 
far  out  of  sight  before  the  next  birds  arrived, 
for  they  were  flying  not  more  than  twenty  feet 
above  the  earth;  but  each  Swallow  followed 
those  that  had  gone  before  it  as  though  guided 
by  the  marks  of  wing  beats  in  the  air. 

In  the  same  way  I  have  seen  Herring  Gulls 
in  the  spring  migrating  over  my  home  at  Engle- 
wood,  New  Jersey.  They  were  flying  toward 
the  northeast  in  flocks  of  fifteen  to  twenty  birds 
and  were  about  one  thousand  feet  above  the 
earth.  At  times  several  flocks  could  be  seen  at 
one  time.  Then  several  minutes  would  pass 
without  any  more  Gulls  appearing.  But  soon 
70 


THE  DAY  FLYERS 

another  flock  would  come  out  of  the  southwest 
and  follow  as  directly  after  those  which  were 
now  several  miles  ahead,  as  though  there  were 
guideposts  in  the  sky. 


TRAVELING  NIGHTHAWKS. 
They  migrate  chiefly  late  in  the  afternoon  and  early  morning. 

Besides  those  day  travelers  which  fly  near 
enough  to  the  earth  to  be  seen,  there  are  others 
which  fly  too  far  above  us  to  be  within  range 
of  our  eyes.  On  September  30,  1894,  an  astrono- 
mer at  Shere,  England,  was  studying  the  sun 
through  a  telescope.  Every  few  seconds,  during 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

the  ten  minutes  he  watched,  a  bird  was  seen  to 
pass  slowly  across  his  field.  All  were  flying  in 
a  southerly  direction;  but  with  the  naked  eye 
not  a  bird  could  be  seen. 

Our  ears  really  tell  us  more  than  our  unaided 
eyes  about  the  day  flyers  which  are  traveling  far 
up  in  the  sky.  With  nothing  to  turn  them  from 
their  course,  sound  waves  carry  surprising  dis- 
tances either  up  from  the  earth  or  down  to  it. 

Balloonists  tell  us  how  clearly  they  can  hear 
voices  of  people  who  are  almost  indistinguish- 
able. So  we  may  hear  the  notes  of  passing  birds 
which  are  traveling  at  too  great  a  height  to  be 
seen.  The  mellow  whistles  of  certain  Snipe  and 
Plover  tell  us  that  they  are  passing  on  the  birds' 
air  line  when  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  see  them. 
But  if  we  answer  we  may  in  time  see  a  black 
speck  in  the  sky,  which  responds  to  our  call  and 
finally  circles  close  overhead. 

On  one  occasion  in  Central  Park,  New  York 

City,  I  hearol  the  flute-like  call  of  a  Yellow-leg 

Snipe  which  was  migrating  high  over  the  city. 

Perhaps  he  was  calling  to  some  companion  in 

72 


THE  DAY  FLYERS 

the  sky.  Certainly  there  was  nothing  on  the 
earth  to  attract  him.  But  putting  my  fingers 
to  my  lips  I  whistled  a  loud  imitation  of  his 
notes.  Quickly  he  answered.  I  whistled  again, 
and  soon  could  see  a  black  dot  circling  high 
above  me.  Larger  and  larger  it  grew,  louder 
and  more  frequent  became  his  cry,  and  within 
a  minute,  much  to  the  surprise  of  the  passers-by, 
the  bird  was  flying  anxiously  back  and  forth  just 
over  my  head.  But  unable  to  find  the  "bird" 
which  had  called  to  him,  he  soon  mounted  high 
in  the  air  and  continued  his  journey. 

THE  PASSENGER  PIGEON 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  of  day  flyers  was 
the  Passenger  Pigeon.  At  times  several  days 
were  required  for  the  migrating  hosts  to  pass 
a  given  point.  The  procession  stretched  from 
horizon  to  horizon  and  was  a  mile  or  more  in 
width.  Often  the  sun  would  be  obscured  by  the 
clouds  of  flying  birds. 

In  1808,  Alexander  Wilson,  America's  pioneer 
ornithologist,  estimated  that  during  a  great  flight 
73 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

of  Pigeons  which  he  saw  in  Kentucky,  2,230,- 
272,000  birds  passed  in  four  hours.  Twenty 
years  later  they  were  still  so  abundant  that  Audu- 
bon  wrote:  "I  have  satisfied  myself  by  long 


A  FAMOUS  DAY  FLYER. 

Passenger  Pigeons  were  once  so  abundant  that  during  their  mi- 
gration in  1808  it  was  estimated  2,230,272,000  passed  one  place 
in  four  hours.  Now  there  are  none. 


observation  that  nothing  but  the  gradual  dimi- 
nution of  our  forests  can  accomplish  their  de- 
crease." But  Audubon  did  not  realize  the  power 
of  the  market  gunner  unrestrained  by  law. 
74 


THE  DAY  FLYERS 

Forests  we  still  have,  but  of  the  Pigeons  not 
one  remains. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  STUDY 

Mention  some  of  the  commoner  day  flyers.  Have 
you  ever  seen  any  of  them  migrating?  How  far 
above  the  earth  were  they?  Were  they  flying  in 
flocks  or  singly?  Which  way  were  they  going? 
Compare  the  habits  of  day  flyers  with  those  of  night 
flyers.  How  do  Crows  migrate?  Have  you  ever 
heard  birds  calling  when  they  were  at  too  great  a 
height  to  be  seen?  Is  it  probable  that  birds  mi- 
grate during  the  day  at  so  great  a  height  as  to 
be  out  of  sight?  Do  traveling  birds  answer  the 
calls  of  others  of  their  kind?  What  are  the  dif- 
ferences between  a  Mourning  Dove  and  a  Wild 
Pigeon?  In  what  part  of  the  country  were  Wild 
Pigeons  once  found;  how  many  did  Wilson  estimate 
passed  him  in  four  hours?  Did  these  birds  nest  in 
scattered  pairs  like  Doves,  or  in  colonies?  How 
large  an  area  is  said  to  have  been  covered  by  a 
single  nesting  community  of  Wild  Pigeons?  How 
many  nests  have  been  seen  in  a  single  tree?  What 
causes  led  to  the  extermination  of  the  Passenger 
Pigeons?  When  was  the  last  one  seen  alive  in 
nature? 


VII 

THE  NIGHT  FLYERS 

IT  is  difficult  to  believe  that  at  times  during 
the  season  of  migration  the  sky  at  night  is 
filled  with  birds  from  dusk  until  dawn.  On- 
ward they  hurry  through  the  darkness.  If  they 
see  the  earth  below,  it  must  be  too  dim  to  guide 
them  on  their  journey.  Still  they  find  their  way 
just  as  surely  as  do  those  birds  which  travel  by 
day. 

The  day  flyers,  as  we  have  seen,  are  hardy 
rovers  which  are  used  to  the  open  and  do  not 
hesitate  to  venture  far  from  cover.  But  the  night 
flyers  are  the  shy,  retiring  birds  of  thickets  and 
undergrowth,  which  rarely  go  far  from  their 
own  doorstep.  Or,  if  they  live  in  trees,  their 
flight  is  usually  only  from  tree  to  tree.  The 
Thrushes,  Warblers,  Vireos,  and  small  Fly- 
catchers are  all  night  flyers. 

Most  of  the  Snipe  live  along  the  beaches  or 


THE  NIGHT  FLYERS 

in  treeless  places,  and,  as  we  have  learned,  they 
travel  by  day.  But  that  retiring  member  of  this 
family,  the  Woodcock,  lives  in  the  dark,  shady 
places  and  waits  for  the  sun  to  set  before  he  starts 
on  his  journey. 

The  Snipe  and  Plover  of  the  open,  with  their 
long,  pointed  wings,  need  not  fear  Hawks  when 
they  are  in  the  air.  But  the  Woodcock,  with  his 
short,  rounded  wings,  would  have  small  chance 
of  escaping  if  a  bird  of  prey  should  give  chase. 
For  several  reasons  we  know  more  about  the 
travels  of  the  night  flyers  than  we  do  about  those 
of  the  day  flyers :  first,  because  many  more  birds 
travel  by  night  than  by  day;  second,  because 
practically  all  birds  that  fly  by  night  are  real  mi- 
grants; third,  because  the  night  flyers  seem  un- 
able to  avoid  the  lighthouses  in  their  way,  and 
the  number  killed  by  striking  these  beacons 
erected  for  man's  safety  has  given  us  a  vast 
amount  of  information  concerning  birds  that 
travel  after  dark. 

By  night  as  well  as  day  our  ears  can  tell  us 
much  about  the  number  of  birds  that  are  passing 
77 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

overhead.  Indeed,  during  nights  when  many 
birds  are  flying,  we  can,  from  favorable  places, 
such  as  high  hilltops  or  cities  in  the  birds'  high- 
way, hear  their  call-notes  almost  constantly.  The 
hill  brings  us  nearer  the  birds,  and  the  city  lights 
bring  the  birds  nearer  to  us.  Light  seems  to 
attract  them  as  it  does  moths. 

An  ornithologist  at  Madison,  Wisconsin, 
states  that  on  the  night  of  September  14,  1906, 
no  less  than  3,800  bird  calls  were  heard  from 
one  place.  The  average  was  twelve  calls  for  each 
minute.  But  at  times  so  many  calls  were  heard 
that  it  was  evident  the  air  above  was  thronged 
with  birds. 

Study  the  birds'  time-table,  and  some  night 
during  the  season  of  migration  go  out  of  doors 
and  listen.  You  may  hear  the  chirp  of  Warblers, 
the  metallic  chink  of  the  Bobolink,  the  soft  whis- 
tle of  the  Thrushes.  Nothing  I  can  write  will 
make  you  realize  more  clearly  how  wonderful 
is  the  journey,  through  the  darkness,  of  these 
small  feathered  travelers. 


THE  NIGHT  FLYERS 

A  NIGHT  IN  A  LIGHTHOUSE 

It  would  be  a  far  more  thrilling  experience 
to  pass  a  night  in  a  lighthouse  when  many  birds 
were  migrating.  Then  you  would  see  sights  such 
as  you  never  dreamed  of.  A  lighthouse  having 
what  is  called  "a  fixed  white  light"  attracts  many 
more  birds  than  one  that  flashes,  or  revolves,  or 
shows  a  red  light. 

When  the  Statue  of  Liberty  was  erected  on 
Bedloe's  Island  in  New  York  Harbor,  it  was 
at  first  fitted  with  a  strong  light  which  proved 
a  deadly  lure  to  many  birds.  While  it  was 
thus  lighted  I  went  with  several  other  orni- 
thologists one  night,  during  the  height  of  the 
fall  migration,  to  spend  the  night  on  the  island. 
Soon  after  dark  we  began  to  hear  the  calls  of 
passing  birds.  The  air  seemed  filled  with  them 
but  they  were  flying  too  high  to  be  attracted  by 
the  light.  All  was  going  well  for  the  night 
flyers  and  they  were  making  rapid  time  on  their 
journey  toward  the  south.  But  at  eleven  o'clock 
the  sky  became  clouded.  Distant  thunder  was 
79 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

heard;  soon  it  began  to  rain  lightly.  At  once 
birds  appeared  about  the  light.  At  first  there 
were  only  a  few;  but  their  numbers  increased 
rapidly  and  within  a  few  minutes  there  were 
hundreds  of  them. 

From  the  feet  of  the  great  figure  which  holds 
in  its  hand  the  fatal  torch,  the  birds,  circling  in 
the  rays  of  light  above,  looked  like  a  swarm  of 
golden  bees.  In  order  that  we  might  be  among 
them,  we  climbed  the  long  spiral  stairway, 
which  winds  around  and  around  inside  the  body 
of  the  goddess,  until  we  reached  her  shoulder. 
Then  we  mounted  the  narrow  ladder  that  runs 
through  her  up-stretched  arm,  and  came  out  on 
the  narrow  balcony  which  surrounds  the  torch. 
Dazzling  white  pathways  stretched  out  on  every 
side  into  the  blackness  of  the  night. 

The  birds  came  from  the  north.  We  could 
first  see  them  when  they  appeared  at  the  end  of 
the  lane  of  light.  There  they  paused  for  a  mo- 
ment. Then,  as  though  drawn  toward  us  by  an 
unseen  power,  they  would  dart  straight  toward 
the  lantern.  Some  hit  parts  of  the  statue  or  the 
80 


THE  NIGHT  FLYERS 

glass  about  the  light,  and  two  or  three  actually 
flew  against  us  as  we  sat  behind  the  low  rail  of 
the  balcony.  Others,  more  fortunate,  passed 
onward  and,  so  far  as  we  could  see,  did  not 
return. 

In  spite  of  the  great  numbers  seen  about  the 
light,  only  about  thirty  hit  it  and  none  of  these 
was  killed.  For  every  bird  seen,  thousands  were 
heard  passing.  It  was  a  scene  of  indescribable 
interest.  We  seemed  to  have  torn  aside  the  veil 
which  hides  the  mysteries  of  the  night  and  with 
the  searchlight  discovered  some  of  nature's  se- 
crets. What  a  marvelous  number  of  birds  must 
be  traveling  when  hundreds  are  killed  at  a  light- 
house on  a  single  night! 

Before  the  first  signs  of  day  were  visible  the 
birds  had  disappeared  from  about  the  light. 
Tired  and  hungry,  they  now  looked  for  food  and 
shelter  in  some  woodland.  Surely  at  such  a  time 
New  York  City  must  seem  a  most  unpromising 
place  for  breakfast.  It  is  no  wonder  then  that 
during  the  season  of  migration  city  parks  should 
be  filled  with  wing-weary  travelers.  From  the 
81 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

sky  they  must  look  like  wooded  islands  sur- 
rounded by  a  sea  of  houses.  So  the  migrating 
birds  which  in  the  country  would  be  scattered 
over  a  wide  area,  in  the  city  are  all  drawn  to  the 
only  places  where  they  may  find  trees  to  alight 
in  and  insects  to  eat. 

THE  NIGHT   FLYERS  THROUGH   A   TELESCOPE 

It  is  surprising  to  look  at  a  drop  of  what  seems 
to  be  pure  water  through  a  microscope  and  find 
scores  of  little  animals  swimming  about  in  it.  It 
is  even  more  astonishing  to  look  into  the  sky  at 
night  through  a  telescope  and  see  that  countless 
numbers  of  birds  are  flying  through  it. 

This  can  be  done  only  when  the  moon  is  full 
or  nearly  full.  Then  it  forms  a  background 
against  which  the  birds  are  seen  to  cross  between 
you  and  its  bright,  golden  face.  A  small,  or 
low-power  telescope  is  used  in  order  that  all  the 
moon  may  be  in  the  field  of  the  glass.  In  this 
way  the  background  is  made  as  large  as  possible. 

At  various  times  and  places  I  have  watched 
the  night  journeys  of  birds  through  a  telescope. 
82 


THE  NIGHT  FLYERS 

One  night  in  early  September,  near  my  home  at 
Englewood,  New  Jersey,  with  a  friend,  I  saw 
two  hundred  and  sixty-two  birds  cross  the  moon 
between  the  hours  of  eight  and  eleven.  Some 


THE  BIRDS  IN  THE  MOON. 

During  the  season  when  birds  are  traveling  and  the  moon  is  full, 
or  nearly  so,  with  the  aid  of  a  small  telescope  the  night  flyers 
may  often  be  seen  crossing  the  face  of  the  moon. 


passed  so  quickly  that  they  were  mere  blurs. 
They  were  evidently  very  near.  Others  were  in 
sight  for  two  or  three  seconds ;  the  movements  of 
their  wings  could  be  seen  distinctly.  They  were 
undoubtedly  a  long  way  off  and  very  high. 
83 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

Now  in  order  to  realize  what  a  very  small 
part  we  saw  of  the  birds  that  were  traveling,  we 
have  only  to  compare  the  size  of  the  moon  with 
that  of  all  the  sky  which  we  see  when  we  look 
at  the  moon.  Let  us  imagine  that  I  could  have 
seen  just  as  well  everywhere  as  I  did  in  that  long, 
narrow  wedge  of  air  which  stretched  from  the 
telescope  to  the  moon.  What  an  amazing  throng 
of  birds  I  should  have  beheld,  all  hurrying  down 
the  air  line  to  their  winter  homes! 

If  we  knew  exactly  how  far  the  birds  observed 
were  from  us,  it  would  be  possible  to  tell  how 
high  above  the  earth  they  were  traveling.  Those 
that  passed  most  quickly  were,  of  course,  the 
nearest  and  lowest.  Probably  they  were  flying 
at  the  height  of  those  birds  whose  call-notes  we 
can  hear  so  plainly  as  they  go  over  us.  This, 
perhaps,  may  be  anywhere  between  five  hundred 
and  one  thousand  five  hundred  feet.  But  cal- 
culations show  that  those  which  were  farthest 
away  were  probably  three  miles  above  us.  As 
we  go  upward  from  the  earth  we  know  that  the 
air  becomes  thinner  and  that  what  is  called  its 
84 


THE  NIGHT  FLYERS 

pressure  grows  less.  So  it  is  much  easier  for  a 
bird  to  travel  at  a  height  of  two  or  three  miles 
than  near  the  ground.  Beyond  a  certain  height 
the  air  would  become  so  thin  that  the  bird  could 
not  live.  Just  how  high  this  is  we  do  not  know ; 
with  man  it  is  about  five  miles. 

The  tops  of  the  highest  mountain  peaks  in  the 
Andes  are  nearly  that  height,  but  the  great  Con- 
dor soars  easily  far  above  them.  On  some  of 
these  same  mountains  small  Flycatchers  and 
Humming-birds  live  the  year  round  nearly  three 
miles  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Thus  we  know 
that  at  even  this  height  the  night  flyers  could 
travel  comfortably. 

MORE  LIGHT  ON   THE  NIGHT  FLYERS 

Few  bird  students  have  had  a  better  oppor- 
tunity to  see  birds  on  their  night  flights  than  was 
afforded  Dr.  Witmer  Stone  in  Philadelphia.  On 
the  night  of  March  27,  1906,  a  great  lumberyard 
in  that  city  caught  fire,  and  like  a  vast  search- 
light it  showed  the  bird  armies  flying  overhead. 
For  at  least  several  hours  the  feathered  invaders 

7  85 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

passed  by  steadily  and  at  ten  o'clock,  when  the 
flight  was  at  its  height,  Dr.  Stone  estimates  that 
there  were  two  hundred  birds  in  sight  at  once. 
"They  flew,"  he  writes,  "in  a  great,  scattered, 
widespread  host,  never  in  clusters.  .  .  .  Far  off 
in  front  of  me  I  could  see  them  coming  as  mere 
specks,  twinkling  like  stars,  and  gradually  grow- 
ing larger  as  they  approached  until  their  wings 
could  be  distinguished  as  they  passed  overhead. 
.  .  .  Over  all  the  illuminated  area  and  doubtless 
for  a  greater  distance  beyond,  they  seemed  about 
evenly  distributed,  those  immediately  over  the 
flames  glowing  like  coals  of  fire,  those  further 
away  appearing  silvery  white." 

Dr.  Stone  believes  that  most  of  the  birds  were 
Juncos  and  Sparrows  of  several  kinds  and  the 
discovery  of  the  partly  burned  bodies  of  some 
of  these  unfortunate  night  flyers  that  had  come 
too  near  the  flames  proved  that  he  was  correct. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  STUDY 

How  do  we  know  that  birds  travel  at  night? 
Why  do  some  birds  migrate  only  after  dark?    Men- 
86 


THE  NIGHT  FLYERS 

tion  some  birds  which  travel  only  at  night.  Have 
you  ever  heard  birds  calling  at  night?  When? 
Where?  Were  they  flying  over?  Were  their  calls 
answered?  Where  is  Bedloe's  Island?  Who  made 
the  Statue  of  Liberty?  By  whom  was  it  given  to 
the  United  States?  Have  you  ever  seen  bird  trav- 
elers in  city  parks?  Why  should  they  visit  them? 
Do  you  know  of  any  parks  in  which  feeding  stands 
and  baths  have  been  arranged  for  the  entertainment 
of  bird  visitors?  In  order  to  understand  clearly 
how  small  a  section  of  the  sky  can  be  examined 
through  a  telescope  which  takes  only  the  moon  in 
its  field,  draw  on  the  blackboard  a  diagram  repre- 
senting the  moon  at  one  end,  a  telescope  at  the 
other.  It  is,  of  course,  only  through  the  narrowest 
part  of  this  area,  that  nearest  the  telescope,  that 
birds  are  visible.  How  many  have  been  seen  through 
a  telescope  in  three  hours?  At  what  height  can 
birds  fly?  Describe  the  observations  of  Dr.  Stone. 


VIII 

THE  TRAVELS  OF  THE  BOBOLINK 

THE  Bobolink  has  come!  What  welcome 
news  this  is  to  the  bird-lover!  Once 
more  the  meadows  will  ring  with  his  wild,  tink- 
ling, rollicking  song.  From  a  perch,  or  on  flut- 
tering wings  in  the  air,  he  pours  out  his  "mad 
music."  When  he  begins  to  sing  it  seems  im- 
possible for  him  to  stop  until,  like  a  music  box, 
he  has  run  down.  A  little  rest,  and  he  seems 
wound  up  again  and  ready  to  repeat  the  melody 
which  has  won  him  a  place  among  our  best  song- 
sters. 

It  is  the  first  week  in  May  and  we  have  been 
expecting  this  black  and  buff  musician  of  the 
pastures.  He  is  as  much  a  part  of  spring  as  the 
wild  flowers  or  apple  blossoms.  We  know  al- 
most to  a  day  when  he  will  come;  just  as  we 
know  when  they  will  bloom. 

The  flowers  and  the  trees  have  not  left  us. 
88 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  THE  BOBOLINK 

They  are  only  waiting  for  the  warm  rays  of  the 
sun  to  break  forth  into  bud  and  blossom.  But 
Bob  has  thousands  of  miles  to  travel  and  many 
dangers  to  escape  before  he  can  keep  his  appoint- 
ment with  us.  It  is  a  marvel  that  he  is  so  rarely 
late. 

Where  has  he  come  from?  How  did  he  get 
here?  Now  that  he  is  here  the  best  way  to 
answer  these  questions  will  be  to  go  with  him  to 
his  winter  home.  Then  we  can  return  with  him 
in  the  spring. 

BOB  AT  HOME 

Within  a  month  after  his  arrival  Bob  and  his 
plainly  dressed,  sparrow-like  wife  will  have 
chosen  a  home.  So  cunningly  will  they  hide  it 
on  the  ground  among  the  grasses,  and  so  wary 
will  they  be  in  going  to  and  from  it,  that  we 
must  watch  them  closely  and  hunt  carefully,  if 
we  would  see  the  five  or  six  heavily  spotted  eggs 
it  contains. 

In  about  two  weeks  these  will  hatch,  and  the 
first  week  in  July  the  young  Bobolinks  will  be 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

on  the  wing.  All  of  them,  whether  brother  or 
sister,  following  the  law  among  birds,  will  look 
like  their  mother.  Even  Bob  himself  will  now 
change  his  black  and  buff  and  white  wedding 
dress  for  the  streaked  costume  of  his  wife.  It 


THE  BOBOLINK. 

The  left-hand  figure  shows  his  wedding  dress;  that  on  the  right, 
his  traveling  suit 

has  doubtless  served  its  purpose  by  making  him 
a  handsome  fellow  in  the  eyes  of  his  bride.  But 
it  has  also  made  him  easy  to  be  seen  by  foe  as 
well  as  by  friend.  Why,  therefore,  should  he 
wear  it  until  he  again  woos  a  mate? 

It  is  even  more  important  that  the  young  Bobs 
should  wear  a  protecting  coat    So  now  we  have 
90 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  THE  BOBOLINK 

them  all  clad  alike.  In  changing  their  plumage 
they  have  also  changed  their  name.  The  Bobo- 
link of  summer  has  become  the  Reedbird  or 
Ricebird  of  fall. 

At  this  time  the  practice  flights  to  roost  in  the 
marshes  begin.  The  wild  rice  is  approach- 
ing the  milky  stage  and  the  birds  gather  in 
great  flocks  to  feed  on  it.  This  fare  not 
only  gives  them  the  only  name  by  which  many 
people  know  them,  but  it  supplies  them  with 
fuel  for  the  great  journey  they  are  about  to  be- 
gin. 

Sadly  enough  it  is  this  fuel — or  fat — which 
makes  the  Ricebird  so  highly  prized  for  food. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  much-loved  musician 
of  May  is  now  hunted  as  though  he  were  an  out- 
law. Thousands  and  thousands  of  these  wonder- 
ful songbirds  are  killed  by  so-called  sportsmen 
to  eat.  But  surely  there  can  be  no  sport  in  killing 
such  small  birds,  while  to  kill  them  for  food  is 
just  as  unpardonable  as  it  would  be  to  make  a 
potpie  of  Nightingales.  Soon,  let  us  hope,  the 
law  will  forbid  Bob's  murder.  Then  perhaps 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

he  may  return  to  places  from  which  in  recent 
years  he  has  vanished. 

Long  ago  Bobolinks  were  common  in  summer 
about  my  home.  To  hear  them  singing  was 
one  of  the  delights  of  my  boyhood.  But  it  is 
years  since  they  have  nested  there.  Trapping 
in  the  spring  and  shooting  in  the  fall  are  doubt- 
less the  reasons  for  their  disappearance.  What 
would  I  not  give  to  bring  them  back  again! 
The  morsel  which  makes  a  mouthful  when  dead 
had  within  its  tiny  throat,  when  living,  the 
power  to  give  one  weeks  of  pleasure. 

THE  JOURNEY  SOUTH 

On  the  Atlantic  coast  no  Bobolinks  nest  south 
of  Philadelphia.  So  when  they  are  seen  in 
Washington  during  the  last  week  in  July  we 
know  that  they  are  already  embarked  on  their 
great  voyage  to  the  South.  They  travel  both 
by  day  and  by  night  The  watchword  is  chink, 
a  clear,  metallic  note  which,  once  it  is  known, 
cannot  be  mistaken  for  that  of  any  other  bird. 
Often  we  may  hear  it  from  birds  that  are  too 
92 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  THE  BOBOLINK 

high  to  be  seen.  But  our  eyes  are  not  needed  to 
tell  us  that  Bob  is  traveling. 

The  wild  rice  marshes  of  New  Jersey,  Dela- 
ware, Maryland,  and  Virginia  have  great  attrac- 
tions for  the  Ricebirds.  It  is  not  until  the  latter 
part  of  August  that  they  reach  Charleston,  South 
Carolina.  Great  quantities  of  cultivated  rice 
were  once  raised  here  on  the  coast.  The  Rice- 
birds'  time-table  seemed  to  be  arranged  so  as  to 
bring  them  to  South  Carolina  just  as  the  kernels 
of  rice  had  reached  the  milky  stage. 

In  clouds  they  swarmed  on  the  plantation.  If 
they  alighted  in  the  rice  field  its  crop  was  soon 
destroyed.  No  effort  was  spared  to  keep  them 
on  the  wing.  Negroes  were  placed  on  platforms 
built  in  the  fields.  Some  were  armed  with  whips 
having  long  lashes ;  others  had  guns. 

When  a  great  flock  of  birds  appeared  the 
whips  were  snapped  with  a  pistol-like  report, 
guns  were  fired,  the  men  shouted.  Everything 
was  done  that  could  be  done  to  prevent  the  flock 
from  alighting. 

So  numerous  were  the  birds  that  killing 
93 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

seemed  to  make  no  decrease  in  their  ranks.  It 
was  more  important  to  frighten  them  than  to 
kill  them. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  Bob  and  his  family 
did  great  damage  to  the  rice  crops.  But  he  did 
equal  harm  to  himself.  His  enemies,  the  gun- 
ners, accused  him  of  being  a  pest.  For  this  rea- 
son it  has  been  impossible  to  have  laws  passed 
protecting  the  Bobolink  south  of  the  country  in 
which  he  spends  the  summer. 

From  South  Carolina  the  Ricebirds  continue 
their  journey  southward  through  Florida.  Then 
they  cross  directly  to  Cuba,  where  they  arrive 
in  September. 

Still  the  birds  fly  southward.  Some  may  fly 
directly  across  the  Caribbean  Sea  to  Colombia, 
a  journey  of  about  500  miles;  others  follow 
the  coast  of  Central  America.  Many  stop  for  a 
while  in  Jamaica.  They  reach  this  island  in 
October,  and  because  of  their  fatness  are  called 
Butterbirds. 

Whether  some  Ricebirds  fly  all  the  way  from 
southern  Cuba  to  northern  South  America  we  do 
94 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  THE  BOBOLINK 

not  really  know.    But  beyond  question  they  must 
fly  from  Jamaica  to  the  mainland  of  Central  or 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  THE  BOBOLINK. 

Some  Bobolinks  nest  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  but  all  Bobo- 
links leave  the  United  States  from  the  Southeastern  corner  when 
traveling  toward  their  winter  home  in  Southern  Brazil.  Dotted 
area — summer  home.  Black  area — winter  home.  Arrows — mi- 
gration route. 

95 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

South  America.  This  is  a  journey  of  not  less 
than  400  miles.  Probably  the  birds  make  it  in 
one  night. 

One  might  think  that  having  reached  South 
America  the  Ricebirds  would  find  suitable  win- 
ter quarters  on  the  great  savannas  of  Venezuela 
and  Colombia.  But  still  the  way  leads  south- 
ward. Down  the  Andes  they  go ;  over  the  great 
tropical  forests,  across  the  Amazon,  beyond  the 
campos  of  Brazil  to  the  great  plains  and  marshes 
on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Paraguay  River. 
Here  they  are  all  crowded  into  a  region  not 
more  than  one-third  as  large  as  that  in  which 
they  live  during  the  summer. 

We  have  been  following  the  Bobolinks  of  the 
North  Atlantic  states,  but  the  Bobolink's  summer 
home  stretches  across  the  continent  from  the 
Atlantic  almost  to  the  Pacific. 

It  is  a  pleasure  for  us  to  know  that  if  Bobo- 
links have  been  becoming  rare  in  some  parts 
of  the  eastern  United  States  they  have  been  grow- 
ing more  common  in  some  western  states. 

Bob  is  a  true  pioneer.  He  has  followed  the 
96 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  THE  BOBOLINK 

farmer  to  the  West.  When  irrigation  turns  the 
desert  places  into  fields  of  grain  and  alfalfa,  the 
Bobolink  in  time  appears.  In  recent  years  he 
has  crossed  the  Rockies  to  Utah  and  Nevada  and 
British  Columbia.  But  like  the  children  that 
might  have  gone  from  Oregon  to  New  York  by 
way  of  Dakota  and  St.  Louis,  Bob  goes  to  his 
winter  home  in  Brazil  over  the  route  which  his 
ancestors  gradually  opened. 

Bobolinks  are  practically  unknown  in  Texas 
and  Mexico.  So  we  know  that  even  the  Bobo- 
links of  Nevada  and  Utah  leave  the  United 
States  by  way  of  Florida.  There  they  probably 
join  others  from  the  eastern  states  and  journey 
with  them  to  South  America. 

THE  RETURN   IN  THE   SPRING 

The  winter  is  passed  with  no  household  cares. 
It  has  sometimes  been  supposed  that  birds  might 
rear  a  family  in  their  winter  as  well  as  in  their 
summer  home.  But  this  is  not  so.  No  bird, 
so  far  as  I  know,  nests  in  two  widely  separated 
places. 

97 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

The  return  journey  is  begun  in  early  March 
when  Bob's  summer  home  is  still  icebound.  But 
before  leaving  Bob  again  completely  changes  his 
clothing  and  puts  on  a  curious-looking  costume 
of  dark,  dull  yellow,  with  bits  of  black  show- 
ing in  places.  The  truth  is  that  he  really  has 
on  his  black,  buff,  and  white  wedding  dress. 
But  almost  every  feather  of  it  is  fringed  with 
dull  yellow.  It  is  as  though  he  wore  a  travel- 
ing coat.  As  he  goes  northward  the  fringes 
slowly  wear  off,  as  if  he  were  losing  a  dis- 
guise. By  the  time  he  reaches  his  summer 
home  they  have  all  gone  and  Bob  shows  his 
true  colors. 

In  the  spring  Bobolinks  follow  backward  over 
the  route  they  used  in  the  fall.  Then  young 
and  old,  male  and  female  travel  together;  but 
now  the  males  go  alone,  some  days  ahead  of  the 
females.  They  reach  Jamaica  and  Cuba  early  in 
April. 

About  April  15  they  arrive  in  southern 
Florida  and  some  of  them  remain  in  the  state 
until  May.  For  this  reason  they  are  called  May- 
98 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  THE  BOBOLINK 

birds.  Few  people  who  use  this  name  know  that 
they  are  giving  it  to  the  same  bird  they  called 
Ricebird  in  the  fall. 

While  in  the  South  the  Bobolinks  remain  in 
close  flocks,  like  Red-winged  Blackbirds.  Like 
the  Red-wings  they  sing  in  chorus.  Multiply 
the  song  of  one  Bobolink  one  or  two  hundred 
times  and  you  may  have  some  idea  of  the  music 
a  whole  flock  of  Bobolinks  can  make. 

Although  the  last  Bobolink  does  not  leave 
Florida  until  late  in  May,  the  advance  guard 
reaches  Washington  the  last  week  in  April. 
May  i  they  are  due  at  New  York,  and  a  week 
later  at  Boston. 

The  Bobolinks  of  northern  New  England  and 
New  Brunswick  have  been  traveling  for  two 
months  over  a  route  about  four  thousand  miles 
long,  and  they  make  this  great  journey  twice  a 
year  to  spend  but  little  more  than  two  months 
on  their  nesting  grounds.  But  in  this  short 
time  they  can  rear  their  families.  This  is 
what  they  come  for.  Why,  then,  should  they 
stay  longer? 

99 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  STUDY 

Have  you  ever  seen  a  Bobolink?  When? 
Where?  Describe  the  colors  of  the  male  and  fe- 
male in  the  spring;  of  the  male  in  fall  and  winter. 
When  does  the  Bobolink  reach  your  latitude  in  the 
spring?  Describe  the  Bobolink's  call-note;  his  song. 
Where  does  the  Bobolink  place  his  nest?  When 
do  the  young  take  wing?  Is  there  a  second  brood? 
Outline  on  the  map  the  area  in  which  Bobolinks 
are  found  during  the  summer.  By  what  name  is 
the  Bobolink  known  in  the  fall?  When  does  the 
fall  migration  begin?  By  what  is  it  preceded? 
Trace  on  the  map  the  route  followed  by  a  Bobo- 
link in  traveling  from  Massachusetts  to  its  winter 
home.  When  does  it  reach  Jamaica?  How  far  is 
it  from  Jamaica  to  the  nearest  part  of  the  coast  of 
South  America.  What  has  induced  the  Bobolink 
to  extend  its  summer  range  westward?  Trace  on 
the  map  the  route  of  a  Bobolink  in  traveling  from 
British  Columbia  to  its  winter  home.  Why  does 
it  not  go  southward  overland  through  Mexico? 


IX 

SOME  FAMOUS  BIRD  TRAVELERS 

SURPRISING  as  are  the  travels  of  the  Bob- 
olink there  are  other  birds  which  make 
even  more  wonderful  journeys. 

When  we  see  how  in  our  own  time  the  Bobo- 
link has  gone  West  with  other  pioneers,  we  can 
to  some  extent  understand  the  manner  in  which 
it  may  have  learned  the  way  from  its  summer 
to  its  winter  home. 

But  when  birds  migrate  regularly  to  and  from 
islands  which  are  hundreds  or  even  thousands 
of  miles  from  the  nearest  land,  we  are  at  a  loss 
to  explain  how  they  can  have  learned  to  make 
so  long  a  journey  over  seas  with  no  place  to  rest 
between  the  ports. 

MIGRATION  TO  THE  BERMUDAS 

One  February  when  I  was  sailing  to  the  Lesser 
Antilles,  about  midway  between  the  Bermudas 

8  101 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

and  Porto  Rico,  we  passed  a  beautiful,  snowy- 
plumaged  Tropic  Bird.  The  bird  was  headed 
northwest  toward  the  Bermudas,  was  flying 
rapidly,  and  seemed  to  pay  no  attention  to  our 
steamer. 

Doubtless  he  was  hurrying  to  join  the  hun- 
dreds of  his  kind  which  every  year,  late  in  Feb- 
ruary, go  to  the  Bermudas  to  rear  their  young. 

Now  this  little  group  of  islets  is  about  six 
hundred  miles  from  the  most  northern  of  the 
Bahamas  and  the  same  distance  from  the  coasts 
of  South  Carolina  and  Nova  Scotia.  On  every 
side  it  is  surrounded  by  water  of  great  depth  and 
there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  there  ever  was 
any  land  nearer  to  it  than  those  places  which  I 
have  mentioned. 

So  the  Tropic  Birds  which  every  February 
go  to  the  Bermudas  could  not  have  learned  the 
route  little  by  little,  as  the  Bobolinks  have 
crossed  the  continent.  There  was  no  halfway 
house.  The  first  journey  had  to  be  made  just  as 
the  latest  ones  are,  in  one  flight. 

We  cannot  believe  that  the  first  Tropic  Birds 
102 


SOME  FAMOUS  BIRD  TRAVELERS 

to  reach  the  Bermudas  deliberately  set  out  like 
explorers  to  discover  new  worlds.  Perhaps,  like 
Columbus,  they  chanced  to  land  upon  the  Ber- 
mudas just  as  he  did  in  the  Bahamas.  We  may 
also  suppose  that,  finding  plenty  of  fish  to  live  on 
and  holes  in  the  coral  rock  to  nest  in,  they  stayed, 
laid  their  one  egg,  and  raised  their  downy  white 
chick.  When  it  could  join  them  they  returned 
to  the  West  Indies  whence  they  had  come. 

Possibly  the  parents  never  flew  back  to  the 
Bermudas  but  the  chick,  prompted  by  that  love 
of  the  land  of  his  birth  which  plays  so  important 
a  part  in  bird  migration  and  which  we  shall 
speak  of  later  as  the  "homing  instinct,"  may 
have  flown  back  to  the  Bermudas  the  following 
year.  "How  could  he  find  the  way?"  is  a  ques- 
tion which  I  will  try  to  answer  in  a  later  chap- 
ter. That  his  offspring  do  find  the  way,  their 
return  in  hundreds  every  February  clearly 
proves. 

The  Tropic  Bird  is  not  the  only  migrant  which 
each  year  visits  the  Bermudas.  Certain  shore 
birds  frequently  stop  here  and,  among  land  birds, 
103 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

the  Kingfisher,  Yellow-billed  Cuckoo,  Bobolink, 
and  Water-Thrush  are  sometimes  found  during 
the  fall  migrations. 

The  course  of  these  smaller  birds  after  leav- 
ing the  Bermudas  is  unknown  to  us.  Possibly 
they  may  head  due  south  for  Porto  Rico,  or  they 
may  go  southwest  toward  the  Bahamas. 

I  have  wondered  whether  it  was  a  flight  of 
birds  from  the  Bermudas  to  the  Bahamas  that 
Columbus  so  fortunately  saw  when  his  discour- 
aged sailors  were  about  to  mutiny  if  he  would 
not  turn  back  home.  On  October  3  of  that  event- 
ful year  Columbus  records  that  they  were  utter- 
ing "murmurs  and  menaces,"  but  on  the  follow- 
ing day  they  were  visited,  he  writes,  "by  such 
flights  of  birds,  and  the  various  indications  of 
land  became  so  numerous,  that  from  a  state  of 
despondency  they  passed  to  one  of  confident  ex- 
pectation." 

Finally,    on    October    7,    birds    became    so 

abundant,  all  flying  toward  the  southwest,  that 

Columbus  changed  his  course  to  follow  them. 

So  we  see  that  it  was  due  to  the  migration  of 

104 


SOME  FAMOUS  BIRD  TRAVELERS 

birds  not  only  that  Columbus  landed  in  the 
Bahamas  instead  of  on  the  Florida  coast,  but 
perhaps  that  he  landed  at  all. 

MIGRATION   TO   HAWAII 

If  we  think  the  Tropic  Bird's  flight  of  at  least 
six  hundred  miles  across  the  sea  to  that  little  dot 
which  marks  the  Bermudas  on  maps  of  the  At- 
lantic, remarkable,  what  shall  we  say  of  the  birds 
which  every  year  visit  the  Hawaiian  Islands? 

These  islands  are  said  to  be  farther  from  a  con- 
tinent than  any  other  part  of  the  earth's  surface.. 
From  California  on  the  east  and  the  Aleutian 
Islands  on  the  north  they  are  distant  two  thou- 
sand miles,  while  Japan  is  even  farther  away. 
Nevertheless  these  islands  are  the  regular  winter 
resort  of  great  numbers  of  Golden  Plover,  Turn- 
stones, Tattlers  and  Curlew,  all  of  which  are 
believed  to  rear  their  young  in  Alaska. 

Here,  then,  we  have  an  over-sea  journey  more 
than  three  times  as  long  as  that  to  the  Bermu- 
das ;  and  furthermore  it  is  made  to  a  winter, 
not  a  summer  home. 

105 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

Unless  what  is  called  the  "homing  instinct" 
acts  in  the  fall  as  well  as  in  the  spring  and  thus 
leads  birds  year  after  year  to  the  same  place  in 
winter  just  as  we  know  it  does  in  summer,  I  can 
give  no  reason  for  the  return  of  these  birds  each 
autumn  to  this  remote  group  of  islands. 

Whatever  may  be  the  true  explanation  of  the 
origin  and  cause  of  this  journey,  it  is  in  many 
respects  the  most  marvelous  of  all  bird  travels. 
Perhaps  the  Golden  Plovers  of  the  Atlantic  may 
fly  just  as  far  without  resting  as  those  of  the 
Pacific,  but  if  they  are  overtaken  by  storms  there 
are  numbers  of  islands  scattered  along  their 
route,  or  they  may  reach  the  mainland. 

But  when  the  Golden  Plover  starts  on  his 
journey  to  and  from  Hawaii  he  has  at  least  two 
thousand  miles  of  water  to  cross  without  one 
single  place  in  which  he  could  take  refuge  from 
a  storm. 

For  a  true  sea  bird  like  a  Petrel,  or  a  Sea-snipe 

like  the  Phalarope,  such  a  journey  would  be  an 

easy  matter.    When  they  were  tired  they  would 

simply  drop  down  on  the  water,  tuck  their  heads 

106 


SOME  FAMOUS  BIRD  TRAVELERS 

under  their  wings,  and  thus  "ride  out"  the  most 
violent  gale. 

But  the  Plover  is  believed  rarely  if  ever  to 
rest  upon  the  water.  Once  under  way  he  must 
keep  on  flying  until  he  reaches  his  desired  haven, 
or  falls  exhausted  into  the  sea. 

Just  how  long  it  takes  the  Plover  to  fly  two 
thousand  miles  no  one  knows,  but  Mr.  Henry 
W.  Henshaw  who  has  made  a  special  study  of 
the  migration  of  this  bird  gives  us  an  estimate 
of  the  probable  speed  at  which  it  travels.  He 
thinks  that  Plovers  can  easily  fly  fifty  to  seventy- 
five  miles  an  hour,  and  believes  they  can  travel 
at  the  rate  of  about  forty  miles  an  hour  for  the 
entire  journey.  At  this  pace  the  birds  would 
cover  nine  hundred  and  sixty  miles  a  day,  and 
if  they  steered  a  true  course  they  would  go  from 
the  Aleutian  Islands  to  Hawaii  in  just  two  days 
and  two  hours. 

During  this  time  they  are  without  either  food 
or  rest  and  we  may  well  believe  that  when  they 
land  they  are  not  only  very  tired  but  very  hungry 
birds. 

107 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

A  TWO  THOUSAND  FOUR  HUNDRED  MILE  FLIGHT 

The  Golden  Plovers  that  nest  on  the  shores  of 
the  Arctic  Ocean  spend  their  winters  far  from 
those  that  nest  in  western  Alaska  and  pass  this 
season  in  Hawaii. 

The  young  Plovers  are  born  in  June,  and  in 
July,  when  they  are  large  enough  to  fly,  they  all 
go  to  the  coast  of  Labrador.  Here,  by  feasting 
on  crowberries,  they  become  very  fat,  and  thus 
store  fuel  for  the  long  voyage  which  lies 
ahead. 

From  Labrador  they  cross  the  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence  to  Nova  Scotia  and  then  strike  out 
across  the  ocean  for  northern  South  America, 
two  thousand  four  hundred  miles  away. 

If  the  weather  is  fine  they  are  seen  passing  over 
the  Bermudas  and  Lesser  Antilles.  But  if  the 
conditions  are  unfavorable  they  may  rest  on  these 
islands  or  they  may  seek  refuge  on  the  mainland. 
When  they  reach  northern  South  America  they 
still  have  two  thousand  seven  hundred  miles  to 
go  before  they  arrive  at  their  winter  quarters  in 
108 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  THE  GOLDEN  PLOVER.  (After  Cooke.) 
This  Plover  leaves  North  America  from  Labrador  and  starts  on 
a  2,400  mile  flight  across  the  ocean  to  Northern  South  America; 
but  in  the  spring  it  goes  back  to  its  Arctic  summer  home  over- 
land through  Central  America  and  the  Mississippi  Valley.  Dot- 
ted area — summer  home.  Black  area — winter  home.  Arrows — 
migration  routes. 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

Argentina,  nearly  eight  thousand  miles  from 
their  nesting  ground.  Here  they  remain  for 
about  four  times  as  long  as  they  do  in  their  nest- 
ing resort  before  beginning  their  northward 
journey. 

The  path  they  select  in  the  spring  makes  the 
Golden  Plover's  migration  route  one  of  the  most 
puzzling  things  in  bird  migration.  They  do  not 
return  to  the  Arctic  Regions  over  the  road  by 
which  they  came  from  them,  but  take  a  wholly 
different  course.  This  leads  them  first  to  north- 
western South  America  whence  they  go  through 
Central  America,  or  over  the  Caribbean  Sea  to 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  They  then  cross  the  Gulf, 
migrate  up  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  finally 
reach  their  Arctic  summer  home  through  Brit- 
ish America. 

There  are  other  birds  which  have  a  double 
route.  For  example,  the  Connecticut  Warbler 
migrates  northward  up  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
and  southward  along  the  Atlantic  coast. 

The  Black  Tern  evidently  follows  a  similar 
course.  In  the  spring  it  is  rarely  seen  on  the 
no 


SOME  FAMOUS  BIRD  TRAVELERS 

North  Atlantic  coast  but  from  August  to  early 
October  it  is  not  uncommon  there. 

How  can  we  explain  these  double  migration 
routes  in  which  a  bird  goes  south  one  way  and 
returns  another? 

Here  there  is  no  gradual  advancing  followed 
by  retracing  of  steps,  generation  after  generation, 
as  there  has  been,  for  example,  with  the  Bobo- 
link. These  birds  never  go  back  by  the  route 
over  which  they  came,  and  how  they  have 
learned  either  to  go  or  come  I  am  sure  I  do  not 
know. 

THE  WORLD'S  CHAMPION  MIGRANT 

What  Professor  Cooke  well  calls  the  "world's 
migration  champion"  is  the  Arctic  Tern.  This 
bird  looks  much  like  the  common  Tern  which 
was  so  nearly  exterminated  by  milliners'  col- 
lectors not  many  years  ago,  but,  thanks  to  pro- 
tection on  its  nesting  grounds,  is  now  becoming 
more  numerous. 

The  Arctic  Tern  nests  from  the  coast  of  Maine 
northward  to  the  very  northern  limit  of  land  and 
in 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

it  winters  along  the  borders  of  the  Antarctic 
Continent  The  distance  between  its  summer 
and  winter  home  is,  therefore,  about  eleven  thou- 
sand miles.  This  means  that  one  bird  flies  nearly 
half-way  around  the  earth  and  back  each  year. 
This  great  journey  is  made  by  thousands  of  Arc- 
tic Terns;  but  in  spite  of  their  numbers  and  the 
length  of  their  route,  few  ornithologists  have 
ever  seen  them  traveling,  and  no  one  knows  just 
what  route  they  follow.  On  the  Atlantic  coast 
they  have  been  seen  south  of  their  nesting  ground- 
but  once.  So  it  seems  probable  that,  like  the 
Golden  Plover,  they  migrate  far  out  at  sea. 

Professor  Cooke  calls  attention  to  the  interest- 
ing fact  that  the  Arctic  Tern  "has  more  hours  of 
daylight  than  any  other  animal  on  the  globe.  At 
the  northern  nesting-site  the  midnight  sun  has 
already  appeared  before  the  birds'  arrival,  and 
it  never  sets  during  the  entire  stay  at  the  breeding 
grounds.  During  two  months  of  their  sojourn 
in  the  Antarctic  the  birds  do  not  .see  a  sunset, 
and  for  the  rest  of  the  time  the  sun  dips  only  a 
little  way  below  the  horizon  and  broad  daylight 
112 


SOME  FAMOUS  BIRD  TRAVELERS 

is  continuous.  The  birds,  therefore,  have  twenty- 
four  hours  of  daylight  for  at  least  eight  months 
in  the  year,  and  during  the  other  four  months 
have  considerably  more  daylight  than  darkness." 
What  wonderful  lives  these  famous  bird  trav- 
elers live !  Almost  constantly  they  are  on  the  go. 
The  scene  is  ever  changing.  Here  today,  they 
are  hundreds  of  miles  away  tomorrow.  Once 
the  brief  nesting  season  is  over  they  are  free  for 
the  rest  of  the  year  and  in  their  winter  homes 
may  wander  whither  the  fare  is  most  to  their 
liking.  But  we  must  not  forget  the  dangers  to 
which  their  long  journeys  expose  them.  Thou- 
sands fall  by  the  way;  and  of  those  that  leave  us 
in  the  fall  possibly  not  more  than  half  return 
the  following  spring. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  STUDY 

Where  are  the  Bermuda  Islands?  How  far  are' 
they  from  the  nearest  land?  When  were  they  dis- 
covered? To  whom  do  they  belong?  What  bird 
travelers  visit  them?  Where  are  the  Bahamas? 
When  and  by  whom  were  they  discovered?  What 
part  did  birds  play  in  their  discovery?  Where  are 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

the  Hawaiian  Islands?  To  whom  do  they  belong? 
How  far  are  they  from  the  nearest  land?  What 
birds  visit  them  in  winter?  Trace  on  the  map  the 
migration  route  of  the  western  Golden  Plover.  At 
about  what  rate  of  speed  is  it  believed  to  travel? 
At  this  rate,  how  long  a  time  would  it  require  to 
fly  from  the  Aleutian  Islands  to  the  Hawaiian 
Islands?  Trace  on  the  map  the  route  of  the  eastern 
Golden  Plover  in  traveling  from  its  summer  home 
to  its  winter  quarters;  and  in  returning.  In  what 
respect  is  its  journey  remarkable?  Mention  some 
other  birds  which  have  a  double  migration  route. 
Trace  the  route  followed  by  the  Arctic  Tern. 


X 


THE  DANGERS  BY  THE  WAY :    A  CHAPTER  OF 
ACCIDENTS 

HOVEL"  is  the  name  by  which  the  farmers 
near  my  home  called  a  certain  kind  of 
barn  in  which  hay  was  stored.  The  entrance  to 
the  loft  was  through  an  opening  large  enough  to 
admit  a  pitchfork  full  of  hay.  There  was  no 
way  of  closing  this  opening  except  by  hay,  which, 
after  a  good  crop,  sometimes  rilled  it.  But  ere 
spring  came  most  of  the  hay  had  been  fed  to  the 
cows  which  slept  beneath  the  hovel,  and  then  the 
doorless  doorway  was  hospitably  open  to  the 
Barn  Swallow. 

Few  hovels  were  without  them;  joyously, 
freely  they  darted  in  and  out.  One  which  I 
used  often  to  visit  had  no  less  than  twenty-two 
Swallows'  nests  built  bracket-like  on  the  face  of 
the  rafters  or  supported  by  various  projections. 

At  the   proper  time   practically  every   nest 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

would  be  overflowing  with  young  Swallows, 
which,  in  this  snug  retreat,  seemed  to  be  removed 
from  the  many  dangers  which  beset  nestling 
birds. 

So  each  season,  beside  the  forty-odd  old  birds, 
some  eighty  young  ones  probably  left  this  hovel 
to  join  others  of  their  kind  on  the  great  journey 
to  the  tropics.  But  the  following  spring  only 
forty-odd  birds  returned  to  the  loft.  What  be- 
came of  the  others? 

There  were  no  colonies  of  Barn  Swallows  near 
by;  nor,  so  far  as  I  know,  were  any  new  ones 
started.  Furthermore,  in  spite  of  their  safe, 
well-protected  nesting  places,  Barn  Swallows 
did  not  seem  to  increase  in  the  neighborhood. 

So  I  could  tell  you  of  other  bird  communities 
with  which  I  am  familiar.  Year  after  year  many 
more  birds  leave  in  the  fall  than  return  in  the 
spring;  and  we  may  well  ask  why  so  few  come 
back. 

Birds,  of  course,  like  other  animals,  are  mor- 
tal, and  each  year  a  certain  proportion  of  them 
die,  but  we  must  find  other  causes  than  death 
116 


THE  DANGERS  BY  THE  WAY 

from  old  age  if  we  would  account  for  the  heavy 
toll  which  each  year  demands  of  bird  life;  and 
chief  among  the  causes  are  the  dangers  to  which 
migrating  birds  are  exposed. 

BIRDS  AT  SEA 

I  do  not  think  that  I  have  ever  made  an 
ocean  voyage  during  the  season  of  migration 
without  having  bird  travelers  come  aboard  the 
steamer. 

Sometimes,  when  we  crossed  their  regular  line 
of  flight  they  visited  us  for  only  a  short  time,  like 
the  Curlew  mentioned  in  a  later  chapter,  which 
took  passage  with  us  for  Ireland  but  decided  to 
continue  the  trip  alone.  I  remember,  too,  a 
Northern  Water-Thrush  which,  early  in  May, 
flew  aboard  our  steamer  when  we  were  in  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico  about  midway  between  Tam- 
pico  and  Key  West  and,  therefore,  on  the  birds' 
highway  from  Yucatan  to  the  United  States.  It 
seemed  in  no  way  tired  but  moved  about  freely 
and  fearlessly.  Finally  it  entered  the  captain's 
cabin,  hopped  about  on  the  charts  as  though  it 

9  117 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

were  making  an  observation,  and  then  it  disap- 
peared. 

On  another  occasion,  this  time  in  the  fall,  a 
Myrtle  Warbler  flew  aboard  a  great  Atlantic 
liner  just  after  it  left  New  York  Harbor. 

Although  the  steamer's  larder  was  stocked 
with  every  variety  of  food  the  most  exacting 
passenger  could  demand,  no  provision  had  been 
made  for  Myrtle  Warblers.  The  bird  made  its 
headquarters  in  the  smoking  cabin — surely  a 
strange  choice — and  in  this  emergency  the  pass- 
engers who  gathered  there  devoted  their  time  to 
hunting  and  catching  flies  for  the  little  feathered 
stowaway,  who  soon  became  so  tame  that  he 
readily  took  food  from  one's  hands. 

But  not  all  feathered  waifs  are  so  fortunate. 
Sometimes  they  themselves  become  food  for 
larger  bird  passengers,  and  Gerald  Thayer  tells 
of  a  Chuck- Will's-Widow  which  he  saw  catch 
and  swallow  Warblers  that  were  following  a 
steamer  off  the  Carolina  coast. 

Even  in  clear  weather  birds  may  lose  their 
way  and  perish  at  sea,  and  when  they  encounter 
118 


THE  DANGERS  BY  THE  WAY 

severe  storms  they  are  wrecked  in  untold  num- 
bers. 

A  naturalist  who  chanced  to  observe  such  a 
disaster  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  describes  it  as 
follows:  "April  2,  1881,  found  me  in  a  small 
schooner  on  the  passage  from  Brazos  de  San- 
tiago, Texas,  to  Mobile,  Alabama.  At  about 
noon  of  that  day  the  wind  suddenly  changed 
from  east  to  north,  and  within  an  hour  it  was 
blowing  a  gale;  we  were  now  about  thirty  miles 
south  of  the  mouths  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
which  would  bring  the  vessel  on  a  line  with  the 
river  and  the  peninsula  of  Yucatan.  Up  to  the 
time  the  storm  commenced  the  only  land  birds 
seen  were  three  Yellow-rumped  Warblers  that 
came  aboard  the  day  previous,  keeping  us  com- 
pany the  most  of  the  day;  but  within  an  hour 
after  the  storm  broke  they  began  to  appear,  and 
in  a  very  short  time  birds  of  various  species  were 
to  be  seen  in  all  directions,  singly  and  in  small 
flocks,  and  all  flying  toward  the  Mississippi 
River.  These  birds,  of  course,  must  have  been 
far  overhead  and  only  came  down  near  the  sur- 
119 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

face  of  the  water  in  endeavoring  to  escape  from 
the  force  of  the  wind.  By  four  o'clock  it  had 
come  to  be  a  serious  matter  with  them,  as  the 
gale  was  too  strong  for  them  to  make  any 
progress.  As  long  as  they  were  in  the  trough  of 
the  sea  the  wind  had  very  little  effect  on  them, 
but  as  soon  as  they  reached  the  crest  of  the  wave 
it  would  catch  them  up  and  in  an  instant  they 
were  blown  hundreds  of  yards  back  or  else  into 
the  water  and  drowned. 

"A  great  many  flew  on  to  the  deck  of  the  vessel 
to  be  washed  about  by  the  next  wave  that  came 
over  the  side.  Although  I  made  no  attempt  to 
count  the  number  of  specimens  that  came  aboard, 
I  should  estimate  them  at  considerably  over  a 
hundred,  and  a  great  many  more  struck  the  sides 
and  tumbled  back  into  the  water.  It  was  very 
sad  indeed  to  see  them  struggling  along  by  the 
side  of  the  vessel  in  trying  to  pass  ahead  of  her, 
for  as  soon  as  they  were  clear  of  the  bows,  they 
were  invariably  blown  back  into  the  water  and 
drowned.  Most  of  those  that  came  aboard  were 
washed  into  the  sea  again,  but  the  next  day  we 
1 20 


THE  DANGERS  BY  THE  WAY 

found  about  a  dozen  dead  bodies  that  had  lodged 
underneath  the  galley." 

When  crossing  the  Great  Lakes  migrating 
birds  are  sometimes  overtaken  by  a  storm  and 
before  they  can  reach  land  are  beaten  to  the 
water  by  thousands.  Probably  only  a  part  of 
those  so  drowned  are  washed  ashore,  but  Mr. 
H.  W.  Henshaw  states  that  after  a  heavy  storm 
in  early  September  on  Lake  Michigan  the  shore 
of  the  lake  was  so  thickly  strewn  with  the  bodies 
of  dead  birds  that  if  they  were  as  numerous  on 
the  whole  eastern  shore  as  they  were  on  the  part 
of  the  shore  he  examined,  over  half  a  million 
birds  must  have  drowned  and  washed  ashore  in 
this  one  storm. 

STORM  BOUND   TRAVELERS 

It  is  not  only  when  migrating  over  water  that 
birds  are  killed  by  storms.  Mr.  H.  P.  Attwater 
writes  from  Rockport,  Texas: 

"Thousands   of  Warblers   undoubtedly   per- 
ished here  last  week  during  the  'norther'  which 
lasted  three  days  commencing  on  March  16. 
121 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

"In  the  evening  of  that  day  flocks  of  Warblers 
were  noticed  around  the  gardens  and  houses 
here,  and  the  next  day  many  were  found  dead  or 
were  caught  in  a  half-perished  condition.  About 
fifty  per  cent  of  them  were  Black  and  White 
Warblers.  The  remainder  were  about  equally 
divided  between  Parulas  and  Sycamore  War- 
blers. Many  Sycamore  Warblers  and  Parulas 
were  captured  alive  in  the  houses. 

"On  the  i9th,  among  many  dead  Warblers 
which  were  brought  to  us  were  a  specimen  of 
the  Louisiana  Water-Thrush  and  one  Hooded 
Warbler.  Many  Yellow-rumps  were  in  com- 
pany with  the  rest,  and,  though  much  tamer  than 
usual,  none  was  found  dead  or  was  captured. 
On  the  1 9th  I  made  a  trip  for  the  purpose  of 
observation,  and  found  many  Black  and  White 
Warblers  and  Parulas  lying  dead  on  the  ground 
at  the  foot  of  live-oak  trees.  From  many  of  the 
ranches  in  the  country  round  here,  came  reports 
of  similar  occurrences  and  many  dead  birds 
of  the  species  mentioned  have  been  sent  to 


122 


THE  DANGERS  BY  THE  WAY 

Longspurs  are  hardy  birds  of  the  Far  North 
and  no  doubt  can  endure  most  severe  weather. 
But  on  March  13,  1904,  when  Longspurs  were 
migrating  northward  in  great  numbers  through 
western  Minnesota,  they  encountered  so  heavy  a 
snowstorm  that,  becoming  exhausted  and  con- 
fused, they  perished  in  vast  numbers.  In  places 
the  surface  of  the  snow  was  thickly  dotted  with 
their  bodies  and  a  careful  survey  of  the  storm- 
swept  region  through  which  they  were  passing 
showed  that  several  million  Longspurs  died  on 
this  one  night. 

THE  LURE  OF  THE  LIGHTHOUSE 

It  would  be  pleasant  to  think  that  man  could 
in  some  way  free  the  path  of  migrating  birds 
from  danger,  or  that  they  might  find  refuge 
from  the  storm  with  us.  But,  sadly  enough, 
man  has  added  not  a  little  to  the  perils  of  their 
journeys. 

Telegraph  wires,  tall  buildings,  and  electric 
lights  all  prove  fatal  obstacles  in  the  birds'  high- 
way, while  the  lighthouses  which  have  been 
123 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

erected  to  warn  man  of  danger  or  guide  him  to 
safety  yearly  lure  many  thousands  of  feathered 
voyageurs  to  their  death. 

The  night  I  passed  in  the  Statue  of  Liberty, 


THE  NIGHT  FLYERS'  BEACON  OF  DANGER. 

Lighthouses,  particularly  on  cloudy,  stormy  nights,  attract  migrat- 
ing birds  as  a  candle  does  moths,  and  many  are  killed  by  strik- 
ing the  lenses  that  surround  the  light,  or  some  part  of  the 
lighthouse. 

of  which  I  have  already  written,  although  many 
birds  fluttered  into  the  statue  none  was  actually 
killed  or  badly  injured.  Migrants  do  not  always 
escape  this  great  monument  so  easily,  and  on 
many  mornings  after  a  stormy  night  in  the  season 
124 


THE  DANGERS  BY  THE  WAY 

of  migration,  hundreds  of  birds  have  been  found 
dead  or  dying  about  the  base  of  the  statue.  For- 
tunately it  is  not  now  so  brilliantly  lighted  as  it 
was  when  first  it  was  erected,  and  is  therefore  not 
so  destructive  to  the  winged  travelers. 

But  real  lighthouses  do  not  dim  their  beacons. 
The  more  powerful  their  light  the  greater  their 
value  to  man  and  their  danger  to  birds.  Placed 
in  exposed,  conspicuous  places  they  seem  to  be 
especially  designed  to  destroy  migrating  birds. 
There  is  not  a  lighthouse  along  our  coast  which 
has  not  its  ghastly  record  of  birds  killed,  but 
some  of  them  seem  to  do  much  more  harm  than 
others. 

A  naturalist  who  spent  a  misty  October  night 
in  the  lighthouse  on  Cape  Hatteras  tells  of  seeing 
thousands  of  small  birds  flying  around  the  tower 
at  one  time ;  he  writes :  "The  whole  element  was 
ablaze  with  them  shining  in  the  rays  of  the  light 
like  myriads  of  little  stars  or  meteors."  So  many 
struck  the  light  that  night  that  he  gathered  three 
hundred  and  fifty  dead  birds  about  the  balcony 
of  the  watch  room  and  one  hundred  and  forty 
125 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

more  were  picked  up  on  the  ground  at  the  base 
of  the  light. 

Many  of  them  were  Warblers.  These  little 
feathered  gems  all  migrate  by  night  and  for  this 
reason,  as  well  as  because  of  their  abundance, 
they  always  figure  largely  in  the  list  of  killed 
and  wounded  migrants  at  the  lights. 

Of  three  hundred  and  ninety-five  birds  which 
were  killed  by  striking  Fire  Island  Light,  Long 
Island,  on  the  night  of  September  23,  1887,  over 
half  the  species  represented  were  Warblers,  and 
of  these  no  less  than  three  hundred  and  fifty-six 
were  Blackpoll  Warblers. 

LOST  BIRDS 

I  might  give  many  more  sad  facts  of  this  kind, 
and  then  not  tell  of  half  the  dangers  which  bird 
travelers  encounter.  When  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands die  we  are  apt  to  know  of  it,  but  of  the 
many  thousands  of  single  birds  which  lose  their 
way  and,  in  the  end,  doubtless  die,  we  know  but 
little. 

When  we  do  find  them  we  call  them  "Acci- 
126 


THE  DANGERS  BY  THE  WAY 

dental  Visitants"  and  record  their  presence  in 
our  bird  magazines. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  pleasure  with  which, 
soon  after  I  began  the  study  of  birds,  I  discov- 
ered a  Lark  Finch  near  my  home  in  New  Jersey. 
This  is  a  bird  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  the 
West,  which  had  been  recorded  from  New  Jer- 
sey only  once  before,  and  its  visit  caused  me  quite 
as  much  excitement  as  though  I  had  found  a 
wholly  new  species. 

During  migrations,  particularly  in  the  fall, 
thousands  of  birds  stray  from  the  proper  line  of 
flight  and  are  lost  in  this  way.  Generally  they 
are  born  during  the  preceding  summer  and  hence 
are  young  and  inexperienced. 

However  much  we  may  regret  their  misfor- 
tune, I  must  confess  that  long  after  one  has 
learned  to  know  all  the  birds  that  should  come, 
the  probability  of  seeing  some  stranger  from  a 
distant  part  of  the  country  adds  not  a  little  to 
the  keen  interest  with  which  we  watch  the  mi- 
grants stream  by. 

Nor  should  we  lack  for  all  of  them  that  feel- 
127 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

ing  we  have  for  those  who  we  know  are  about  to 
face  a  great  danger. 

BIRD  TRAVELERS  AS  WARDS   OF  THE   GOVERNMENT 

We  have  seen  that  through  the  erection  of 
lighthouses,  towers,  and  tall  buildings,  and  of 
wires  for  conducting  electricity,  man  has  added 
greatly  to  the  dangers  which  beset  traveling 
birds.  He  has  also  claimed  for  his  own  purposes 
vast  areas  which  once  teemed  with  bird  life  and 
are  now  the  sites  of  cities  or  under  cultivation. 

This  is  an  inevitable  consequence  of  man's 
progress  in  his  conquest  of  the  world.  Still  he 
will  never  reach  a  point  where  he  can  afford  to 
do  without  the  service  rendered  him  by  insect- 
eating  birds.  They  are  nature's  guardians  of  our 
forests,  fields,  orchards,  and  gardens. 

Our  insect  enemies  seem  to  increase  with  the 
size  of  our  crops.  Potato  beetles,  cotton-boll 
weevils,  alfalfa  weevils,  coddling  moths,  and 
scores  of  others  have  only  become  pests  since 
man  supplied  the  food  on  which  they  thrive  and 
increase  in  such  numbers  as  to  threaten  the  very 
128 


THE  DANGERS  BY  THE  WAY 

existence  of  their  own  chief  source  of  nourish- 
ment. So,  more  than  ever  before,  man  needs  the 
help  of  those  birds  which  are  nature's  principal 
means  of  keeping  injurious  insects  from  becom- 
ing unduly  abundant. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  these  birds,  as  a 
group,  are  among  the  greatest  of  bird  travelers. 
By  far  the  larger  number  leave  the  United 
States  in  the  fall  to  winter  in  the  tropics,  some 
going  south  of  the  Equator.  It  follows,  there- 
fore, that  besides  all  those  dangers  that  threaten 
the  lives  of  birds  during  the  nesting  season,  these 
feathered  allies  of  ours  are  also  exposed  to  the 
great  perils  of  migration.  Not  only  that,  but 
twice  each  year  they  must  run  the  gantlet  of 
glaring  lighthouses,  shadowy  towers,  and  wire 
entanglements  which  we  seem  to  have  placed  in 
their  path  with  the  express  object  of  destroying 
them. 

If  not  from  a  sense  of  fairness  and  humanity, 

it  seems  clear,  then,  that  in  our  own  interests  we 

should  surely  do  something  to  make  the  lives. of 

this  feathered  army  of  insect  fighters  as  safe  as 

129 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

we  can  under  the  circumstances.  We  cannot 
abandon  our  lighthouses  and  electric  wires ;  we 
cannot  control  fogs  and  storms;  but  we  should 
be  able  to  control  those  of  our  fellowmen  who 
are  so  short-sighted  as  to  want  to  kill  these  birds 
for  one  reason  or  another. 

Not  so  many  years  ago  they  were  killed  in 
countless  numbers  to  be  placed  on  women's  hats ; 
long  after  this  was  prohibited  by  law  in  some 
states,  it  was  permitted  in  others ;  while  in  cer- 
tain markets  in  the  South  one  could  see  great 
bunches  of  small  insect-eating  birds  hung  up  for 
sale. 

It  is  impossible,  of  course,  for  the  law  of  one 
state  to  follow  these  wonderful  little  travelers  on 
their  long  journeys.  Here  today,  they  may  be 
hundreds  of  miles  away  tomorrow.  No  state, 
therefore,  can  claim  them  as  her  citizens.  They 
are  more  nearly  citizens  of  the  Republic,  and  as 
such  they  should  be  wards  of  the  United  States 
Government.  This  is  the  conclusion  reached  by 
eminent  lawmakers  who  are  also  familiar  with 
the  ways  of  our  migratory  birds  and  their  value 
130 


THE  DANGERS  BY  THE  WAY 

to  man.  A  law  known  as  the  Federal  Migratory 
Bird  Law  has  therefore  been  passed  by  Con- 
gress. Under  this  law  migratory  game  birds 
can  be  legally  shot  only  during  a  certain  time 
in  the  fall  or  early  winter,  and  not  at  all  in  the 
spring  when  they  are  traveling  to  their  nesting 
grounds,  while  all  the  host  of  migratory  insectiv- 
orous birds  cannot  be  legally  killed  at  any  season 
or  any  place  in  the  United  States  or  its  territories. 
It  is  true  that  this  law  does  not  follow  these 
birds  beyond  our  boundaries,  but  let  us  hope  that 
some  day  we  may  have  treaties  with  Canada  to 
the  north  and  with  other  countries  to  the  south, 
which  will  insure  safe  conduct  to  Citizen  Bird 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  coun- 
tries in  which  he  travels. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  STUDY 

Mention  some  birds  which  build  their  nests  in 
our  houses  or  barns.  In  becoming  our  tenants,  how 
have  they  changed  their  nesting  habits?  Do  you 
know  of  any  birds  which  have  either  increased  or 
decreased  in  numbers?  What  caused  their  change 
in  numbers?  To  what  dangers  are  migrating  birds 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

exposed?  Have  you  ever  seen  land  birds  board 
a  vessel  at  sea?  Have  you  ever  found  a  dead  bird? 
What  do  you  think  was  the  cause  of  its  death? 
Why  are  more  lost  birds  found  in  the  fall  than 
in  the  spring? 

Why  are  insect-eating  birds  especially  valuable  to 
man?  Describe  some  of  the  ways  in  which  birds 
catch  insects.  What  kinds  of  birds  feed  on  the 
'wing?  What  kinds  feed  from  the  leaves,  buds,  or 
blossoms?  What  kinds  feed  on  bark-haunting  in- 
sects, insects'  eggs  and  larvae? 

Mention  some  insects  injurious  to  agriculture;  to 
fruits ;  to  forests.  Why  are  insect-eating  birds  ex- 
posed to  more  dangers  than  seed-eating  birds?  For 
what  purposes  have  birds  been  destroyed?  Why  can 
a  Federal  law  give  migratory  birds  better  protec- 
tion that  a  state  law?  How  are  birds  protected  la. 
your  state? 


XI 

THE  BIRDS'  COMPASS 

HAVE  you  ever  been  in  a  small  boat  off- 
shore in  a  fog?  It  is  not  a  pleasant  ex- 
perience. You  venture  out,  perhaps  to  fish  or 
sail,  on  some  fine,  clear  day,  when  suddenly  a 
bank  of  fog  comes  creeping  in  from  the  sea. 
Almost  before  you  see  it,  softly,  silently,  swiftly, 
it  surrounds  you.  The  shore  becomes  dim  and 
soon  disappears.  Probably  you  have  no  com- 
pass, and  unless  a  fog  siren,  the  wind,  or  the  tide 
gives  you  a  clew,  you  may  soon  be  quite  at  a  loss 
to  say  where  the  land  lies. 

Then  you  will  be  fortunate  if  somewhere  near 
by  there  is  a  nesting  colony  of  sea  birds.  In  the 
Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  where  I  have  had  such  an 
experience  as  I  am  describing,  there  may  be 
Murres,  Auks,  or  Puffins.  Off  the  coast  of 
Maine  we  would  find  Herring  Gulls.  If  we 
10  133 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

were  near  Nantucket  we  might  expect  to  see 
the  Terns  that  nest  on  Muskeget  Island. 

If  some  of  these  birds  also  had  gone  out  to  fish 
at  sea,  when  the  fog  came  what  would  happen  to 
them?  The  deep,  bellowing  roar  of  the  siren 
could  mean  nothing  to  them.  I  doubt  if  they 
would  notice  the  direction  of  either  wind  or  tide. 
Nevertheless,  bird  after  bird  would  go  swiftly 
through  the  fog,  returning  to  its  home  just  as 
directly  and  surely  as  though  it  could  be  seen 
distinctly.  Then  if  we  were  wise,  like  many 
fishermen  before  us,  we  would  set  our  course  by 
the  birds  and  reach  land  in  safety.  So  the  birds 
would  then  be  our  compass.  But  what  compass 
do  they  steer  by? 

Some  years  ago,  when  nearing  the  end  of  a 
voyage  across  the  Atlantic,  I  discovered  a  Cur- 
lew aboard  the  steamer.  The  season  (it  was  in 
May)  and  the  fact  that  several  Wheatears  had 
also  just  taken  passage  with  us  showed  that  we 
had  entered  one  of  the  birds'  highways  of  migra- 
tion. 

The  Wheatear  is  a  small  bird  about  the  size  of 
134 


THE  BIRDS'  COMPASS 

a  Bluebird.  It  is  one  of  the  few  birds  which 
regularly  travel  from  Europe  to  eastern  North 
America.  The  first  Wheatears  reach  England 
from  the  South  about  March  i,  but  at  that  time 
they  certainly  could  not  continue  their  journey 
to  Greenland  and  Labrador.  Possibly,  there- 
fore, the  early  comers  settle  in  England.  If  this 
is  true,  it  is  probable  that  the  later  birds  are  the 
ones  which  cross  the  Atlantic  to  nest  in  North 
America.  Perhaps  the  very  birds  which  had 
boarded  our  steamer  were  making  this  wonder- 
ful journey. 

They  seemed  so  small  and  weak  when  seen 
flying  above  the  ocean  over  which  they  had  em- 
barked so  bravely,  that  one  could  not  believe 
their  tiny  wings  were  strong  enough  to  battle 
with  its  storms.  Then  as  one  thought  of  the 
length  of  their  journey  over  the  trackless  waters, 
it  seemed  even  more  remarkable  that  they  should 
be  able  to  steer  a  course  which  would  bring  them 
safely  to  the  land  for  which  they  had  started. 

How  do  they  do  it?  What  is  the  secret  of  the 
power  which  guides  them  on  journeys  where 
135 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

man,  without  the  aid  of  chart  and  compass,  sex- 
tant and  chronometer,  would  surely  lose  his  way? 

If  the  Curlew  did  not  give  me  an  answer  to 
this  question,  he  had  at  least  given  me  an  exhibi- 
tion of  the  confidence  with  which  birds  set  out 
on  voyages  from  which  man,  unaided,  would 
shrink.  The  Wheatears,  when  I  walked  too  near 
them,  flew  to  some  other  part  of  the  steamer. 
Evidently  they  welcomed  a  lift  on  their  long 
flight.  But  the  Curlew,  as  I  attempted  to  photo- 
graph him  at  short  range,  without  the  slightest 
hesitation  left  his  perch  on  one  of  the  steamer's 
boats  and  flew  out  to  sea.  He  did  not  swing 
around  to  the  stern  to  follow  us  but  flew  on 
ahead.  There  was  no  wavering  in  his  course. 
With  as  much  certainty  as  the  man  at  the  wheel 
pointed  the  steamer's  bow  toward  the  Irish  coast, 
so  did  he  point  his  bill  toward  land.  He  seemed 
to  know  where  he  was  going.  His  speed  was 
much  greater  than  ours  and  soon  he  was  lost  to 
sight. 

At  this  time  Fastnet  Light,  the  nearest  land, 
was  distant  one  hundred  and  forty  miles.  From 

136 


THE  BIRDS'  COMPASS 

the  height  at  which  the  Curlew  was  flying,  the 
horizon  was  distant  not  more  than  six  miles. 
Even  if  his  eyes  were  like  telescopes  he  could 
not,  therefore,  have  seen  the  coast  But  if  it  had 
been  so  near  that  the  beaches  and  marshes  where 
he  might  find  his  favorite  fare  were  in  plain 
sight,  he  could  not  have  started  for  them  more 
directly.  Small  use  had  he  for  the  steamer! 
Doubtless  before  we  arrived  he  had  found  a 
hearty  meal. 

"Seeing  is  believing,"  says  the  old  proverb, 
and  this  Curlew,  boldly,  confidently  striking  out 
ahead  of  us  with  all  our  equipment  for  following 
the  proper  route,  seemed  to  prove  that  he  was 
possessed  of  some  special  power  which  held  him 
to  the  proper  course. 

But  if  it  was  surprising  to  see  a  bird  start  on 
a  voyage  of  one  hundred  and  forty  miles,  what 
would  we  think  if  we  should  see  the  Turnstones 
begin  their  two-thousand-mile  journey  from 
Alaska  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands?  Or  what 
should  we  say  of  a  Golden  Plover  as  he  began 
his  two-thousand-four-hundred-mile  flight  from 
137 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

Nova  Scotia  to  South  America?  Or  how  shall 
we  express  our  amazement  that  tiny  Warblers, 
Vireos,  and  Flycatchers  can  wing  their  way 
through  the  blackness  of  the  night  and  after 
traveling  thousands  of  miles  arrive  on  the  date 
on  which  they  were  due? 

-So  we  repeat  the  question  which  people  for 
years  have  asked  before  us — how  do  they  find 
the  way?  Or,  in  other  words,  what  is  the  birds' 
compass?  Sight  may  be~of  assistance  to  birds  on 
short  journeys,  but,  as  we  have  seen,  it  would  be 
of  small  service  over  hundreds,  not  to  say  thou- 
sands, of  miles  of  water.  The  sense  of  smell  is 
poorly  developed  in  birds,  but  in  any  case  it 
would  be  of  no  value  over  the  distances  they 
travel.  Their  sense  of  hearing  is  very  acute. 
When  they  are  migrating  they  frequently  utter 
their  call-notes.  Doubtless  these  serve  to  keep 
birds  of  the  same  kind  together.  But  the  leaders 
of  a  flock  or  company  hear  no  calls  ahead  to 
guide  them. 

Taste  and  touch  have  certainly  nothing  to  do 
with  it.  So  we  conclude  that  birds  possess  a  sixth 
138 


THE  BIRDS'  COMPASS 

sense.  This  has  been  called  the  sense  of  direc- 
tion. The  sense  of  sight  we  know  exists  in  the 
eye,  and  the  sense  of  hearing  in  the  ear,  and  in 
the  nerves  leading  from  these  organs  to  the  brain. 
But  no  one  knows  where  the  sense  of  direction  is 
situated.  Indeed,  it  is  only  within  the  last  few 
years  that  naturalists  have  ventured  to  speak  of 
a  sense  of  direction  as  something  which  actually 
exists. 

Sometimes  this  sense  is  designated  as  the 
"homing  instinct."  So  we  speak  of  the  homing 
instinct  of  Carrier  or  Homing  Pigeons.  But  the 
homing  instinct  and  the  sense  of  direction  are 
really  two  different  things.  The  first  impels  the 
bird  to  start;  the  second  guides  it  on  its  way. 
Everyone  knows  in  a  general  way  that  when 
Carrier  Pigeons  are  taken  from  their  homes  and 
released,  they  at  once  start  on  the  homeward 
journey. 

But,  generally  speaking,  Pigeons  are  at  first 
taken  for  only  a  short  distance,  and  they  gradu- 
ally learn  to  make  long  flights  only  after  they 
have  made  shorter  ones.  The  owner  of  the 
139 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

Pigeons  usually  does  not  care  to  risk  losing  his 
birds  by  taking  them  so  far  from  home  that  they 
may  never  return.  But  it  is  also  true  that  the 
first  homing  flights  of  Pigeons  are  often  over 
routes  which  they  have  never  seen  before.  The 
journey  may  be  short,  but  like  the  sea  birds  in  the 
fog,  they  would  not  know  what  direction  to  take 
if  something  did  not  tell  them,  and  this  some- 
thing is  the  homing  instinct  or  sense  of  direction. 
Before  the  discovery  of  wireless  telegraphy, 
Captain  Reynaud  of  France  was  forming  a 
Pigeon  post  service  for  the  French  ArrTiy. 
Among  his  experiments  he  released  Pigeons 
from  steamers  when  they  were  out  of  sight  of 
land.  I  still  have  a  message  which  he  sent  me 
from  the  steamer  on  which  he  was  returning 
from  this  country  to  France.  Surely  something 
more  than  sight  was  required  to  bring  the  bird 
that  bore  this  message  back  to  its  home  in  New 
York  City.  It  has  been  suggested  that  from  the 
cage  in  which  they  were  confined  the  Pigeons 
might  see  the  country  through  which  they  were 
passing.  They  could  then,  some  people  have 
140 


THE  BIRDS'  COMPASS 

supposed,  remember  the  main  landmarks  and 
thus  find  their  way  back. 

But  there  are  not  many  landmarks  at  sea,  and 
another  experiment  by  Captain  Reynaud  clearly 
proved  that  Pigeons  can  return  to  their  homes 
over  a  country  which  they  could  not  possibly 
have  seen.  In  this  experiment  he  took  five 
Pigeons,  when  they  were  under  the  influence  of 
chloroform,  from  Orleans  to  Evreux,  France. 
This  is  a  distance  of  about  seventy  miles.  After 
two  days,  when  they  had  thoroughly  recovered 
from  the  effects  of  the  drug,  they  were  released, 
and  at  once  returned  to  their  home  in  Orleans. 
These  birds,  therefore,  were  certainly  not  guided 
by  anything  that  they  had  learned  of  the  route 
while  traveling  to  Evreux. 

The  natives  of  certain  islands  in  the  South 
Pacific  use  Frigate  or  Man-of-War  Birds  for 
messengers.  Probably  this  custom  is  of  much 
older  origin  than  our  employment  of  the  Pigeon. 
The  Frigate  Bird  is  a  great  wanderer.  With 
wings  which  measure,  when  spread,  about  eight 
feet  from  tip  to  tip,  its  body  is  not  much  larger 
141 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

than  that  of  a  good-sized  chicken.  It  can  there- 
fore remain  in  the  air  for  long  periods  and,  if 
necessary,  make  great  journeys  without  resting. 
We  cannot  prove  that  the  birds  used  as  messen- 
gers on  the  Pacific  had  not  in  some  manner 
learned  the  routes  over  which  the  natives  sent 


MAN-OF-WAR  BIRD. 

With  a  wing-spread  of  eight  feet  and  a  body  no  larger  than 
that  of  a  good-sized  hen,  this  is  one  of  the  world's  famous  flyers. 
Its  feet,  however,  are  so  small  that  it  can  barely  walk. 


them.  But  in  the  experiments  which  I  am  about 
to  relate  we  know  that  the  birds  used  had  never 
before  made  the  journey  from  the  place  where 
they  were  released  to  the  place  from  which  they 
were  taken. 

These  experiments  were  planned  by  Professor 

Watson   of  Johns   Hopkins   University.     The 

birds  used  were  Sooty  and  Noddy  Terns.    Many 

thousands  of  these  birds  nest  on  Bird  Key,  a  tiny 

142 


THE  BIRDS'  COMPASS 

islet  in  the  Dry  Tortugas.  In  order  that  he 
might  study  their  habits  Professor  Watson  lived 
alone  on  the  Key  with  them  for  three  months. 

Birds  which  know  nothing  of  man  generally 
have  little  or  no  fear  of  him,  so  Professor  Wat- 
son was  soon  on  friendly  terms  with  the  Terns 
of  this  remote  island.  He  could  go  among  them 
and  cause  no  more  alarm  than  one  would  in 
walking  through  a  poultry  yard.  This  tameness 
permitted  him  to  learn  many  interesting  things 
about  their  home  lives.  He  also  made  a  number 
of  tests  to  see  whether  birds  which  were  taken 
some  distance  from  the  Key  and  released  would 
return  to  it. 

He  caught  several  birds  and  with  aniline  dyes 
stained  their  feathers  various  colors  in  order  that 
he  might  recognize  them.  First  he  took  three 
Noddies.  Some  were  set  free  only  twenty  miles, 
others  sixty  miles,  from  the  Key.  All  returned 
within  from  one  and  three-quarters  to  about 
three  and  a  half  hours  after  being  given  their 
freedom. 

Then   two  Noddies   and   two   Sooties,   after 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

being  colored,  were  sent  to  Havana,  a  distance 
of  one  hundred  and  eight  miles.  They  were  re- 
leased on  the  morning  of  July  i  ith,  and  returned 
to  the  Key  the  next  day.  It  may  be  said  that 
these  birds  had  flown  over  this  route  before,  but 
in  the  next  test  the  birds  used  were  taken  on  a 
voyage  over  a  part  of  the  sea  about  which  they 
could  have  known  nothing. 

On  June  i3th,  three  Noddy  and  two  Sooty 
Terns  were  caught  and  marked,  and  sent  from 
Bird  Key  to  Key  West.  Here  they  were  placed 
in  the  hold  of  a  northbound  steamer.  They  were 
carefully  fed  and  watered,  and  on  June  i6th 
were  released  about  twelve  miles  east  of  Cape 
Hatteras,  off  the  coast  of  North  Carolina.  This 
is  about  one  thousand  and  eighty  miles  by  water 
from  Bird  Key — a  long  journey  even  for  the 
most  highly  trained  homing  Pigeon.  But  the 
birds'  compass  pointed  the  way,  and  on  the  morn- 
ing of  June  2ist,  both  the  Sooties  were  found  on 
their  nests,  and  one  of  the  Noddies  was  seen 
several  days  later. 

Still  we  might  say,  as  someone  indeed  sug- 
144 


THE  BIRDS'  COMPASS 

gested,  that  these  birds  simply  followed  the  coast 
line  until  they  reached  their  island  home. 
Though  why  they  should  go  south  instead  of 
north,  or  turn  westward  through  the  Florida 
Keys  instead  of  eastward  to  the  Bahamas,  where 
many  Terns  of  their  kind  live,  is  not  explained. 

However,  to  make  it  perfectly  clear  that  the 
birds  were  not  guided  by  landmarks  of  any  kind, 
Professor  Watson  finally  sent  several  Sooty  and 
Noddy  Terns  across  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to 
Galveston.  This  city  is  distant  eight  hundred 
and  fifty-five  miles  from  the  Tortugas,  and  the 
intervening  water  is  unmarked  by  islet,  shoal,  or 
reef.  Nevertheless,  one  of  the  birds  returned  to 
Bird  Key  in  six,  one  in  seven,  and  a  third  in 
twelve  days  from  the  time  of  release. 

It  is,  therefore,  practically  certain  that  the 
birds  used  could  not  have  been  familiar  with 
the  route,  nor  could  there  have  been  other  birds 
of  their  kind  to  guide  them.  From  the  hold  of 
the  vessel  they  certainly  could  not  have  observed 
the  water  over  which  they  were  sailing,  and  if 
they  had,  it  would  not  have  given  them  a  clew  to 
145 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

a  return  route.  We  can,  therefore,  explain  their 
remarkable  feat  only  by  believing  that  they  were 
guided  by  what  we  call  the  sense  of  direction. 

No  experiments  that  I  know  of  seem  to  prove 
more  clearly  than  these  of  Professor  Watson 
that  birds  possess  this  sense. 

Doubtless  it  is  this  sense  which  each  year  leads 
fishes  to  their  spawning  grounds  and  seals  to 
their  "rookeries."  It  appears  also  to  exist  to 
some  extent  in  man,  particularly  uncivilized 
man.  But  man,  besides  being  more  intelligent 
than  the  animals  below  him,  possesses  powers  of 
observation  and  reason  which  make  him  less  de- 
pendent on  the  promptings  of  instinct  than  they 
are. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  STUDY 

Do  you  ever  have  any  difficulty  in  naming  the 
points  of  the  compass  when  you  are  in  a  strange 
place?  Have  you  ever  been  lost  in  a  fog?  Can 
you  find  your  way  about  an  unfamiliar  city  easily? 
Have  you  ever  seen  Homing  Pigeons  flying  back  to 
their  loft?  Do  you  know  anything  about  the  length 
of  the  journeys  these  Pigeons  make  and  the  time 
required  to  make  them?  If  you  have  ever  seen  birds 
146 


THE  BIRDS'  COMPASS 

flying  through  a  fog,  describe  the  circumstance. 
Have  you  ever  had  a  bird  fly  aboard  your  steamer 
when  at  sea?  What  was  the  nearest  land  at  the 
time?  What  was  the  season  of  the  year?  Where 
do  you  think  the  bird  had  started  from  and  was 
bound  for?  Do  you  think  it  was  on  or  off  its 
course? 

Describe  some  of  the  experiments  of  Professor 
Watson.  Do  they  indicate  the  existence  of  a  sense 
of  direction  in  birds?  Do  you  know  of  any  cases 
of  domestic  animals  finding  their  way  home?  Had 
they  been  over  the  route  before?  By  what  sense 
or  senses  were  they  guided? 

Define  the  difference  between  the  "homing  in- 
stinct" and  the  "sense  of  direction." 


XII 

WHY  BIRDS  TRAVEL 

BUT  while  we  may  prove  that  birds  possess 
a  sense  of  direction  and  may  learn  all  there 
is  to  know  about  when,  where,  and  how  they 
make  their  great  journeys,  we  still  do  not  know 
why  they  make  them.  That  is  quite  another  and 
much  more  difficult  question  to  answer. 

We  can  see  the  Wild  Goose  on  its  travels. 
We  know  where  it  is  going,  where  it  came  from, 
and  when  it  will  arrive.  We  even  think  we  know 
how  it  finds  the  way.  But  we  do  not  know  why 
it  started.  That  it  should  leave  the  North  at  the 
approach  of  winter  is  not  strange.  But  why 
should  it  leave  the  bays  and  lagoons  of  our  south- 
ern coasts,  with  their  rich  store  of  food,  to  follow 
close  upon  the  heels  of  retiring  winter?  So  eager 
is  it  to  return  to  its  summer  home  that  it  some- 
times is  caught  by  late  cold  storms  and  forced 
to  retreat  southward. 

148 


WHY  BIRDS  TRAVEL 

The  Bobolink  and  many  other  birds  begin 
their  journey  to  winter  quarters  before  the  sum- 
mer is  half  over.  They  stay  only  long  enough  to 
rear  their  broods  and  get  new  suits  of  feathers; 
then  they  are  off  on  the  first  stages  of  their  four- 
thousand-mile  journey  to  southern  Brazil.  Thus 
we  see  that  they  travel  eight  thousand  miles  every 
year  to  spend  only  about  two  months  on  their 
nesting  ground.  What  is  it  that  causes  them 
to  undertake  this  remarkable  journey  with  all  its 
many  dangers?  Why  can  they  not  nest  in  the 
great  campos  and  marshes  of  southern  Brazil 
and  northern  Paraguay  just  as  well  as  in  the 
meadows  of  Massachusetts? 

When  I  have  been  studying  birds  in  April  in 
tropical  countries — in  Cuba,  Yucatan,  Colom- 
bia, or  Trinidad — I  have  often  seen  flitting  about 
with  the  native  tropical  species,  many  of  our 
own  summer  Warblers,  Vireos,  and  Flycatchers. 
At  this  time  the  rainy  season  was  approaching. 
Trees  were  blooming,  some  fruits  ripening,  in- 
sects becoming  more  numerous.  But  in  spite  of 
this  increase  in  the  supply  of  food,  and  the  fact 
11  1-49 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

that  many  tropical  birds  were  already  nesting, 
day  after  day  the  Redstarts,  Water-Thrushes, 
Blackburnian  and  Canadian  Warblers,  Red- 
eyed  Vireos,  Acadian  Flycatchers,  Olive-backed 
Thrushes,  and  other  familiar  North  American 
birds  were  leaving  the  land  of  plenty  to  start 
on  a  flight  of  several  thousand  miles.  Who  can 
say  why  they  go? 

Now  an  instinct  is  merely  a  habit  of  such  long 
standing  that  we  cannot  say  how  it  was  formed. 
So  when  we  attempt  to  explain  the  origin  of 
this  homing  instinct  we  must  remember,  first, 
that  birds  have  been  migrating  for  a  very  long 
time — how  many  thousands  of  years  I  shall  not 
attempt  to  say.  Second,  that  during  this  time 
there  have  been  far-reaching  changes  in  the  cli- 
mate of  the  world.  Places  which  have  now  an 
Arctic  climate,  we  know  once  had  a  warm  or 
subtropical  climate. 

Thus  the  discovery  of  the  imprint  of  magnolia 

leaves  in  the  rocks  of  northern  Greenland  tells  us 

that  magnolia  trees  once  grew  on  the  shores  of 

the  Arctic  Ocean.    In  a  similar  way  the  grooves 

150 


WHY  BIRDS  TRAVEL 

cut  by  glaciers  in  the  rocks  of  Central  Park  show 
us  that  a  great  ice  sheet  once  spread  southward 
as  far  as  New  York  City. 

If  there  were  magnolia  trees  in  Greenland, 
it  is  more  than  probable  that  there  were 
also  various  kinds  of  birds  that  we  associate 
with  these  trees.  And  if  New  York  was  cov- 
ered with  ice,  it  must  have  been  the  home  of 
birds  which  are  now  found  only  in  the  Far 
North. 

Geologists  tell  us  that  in  the  later  history  of 
the  earth  there  have  been  not  one,  but  several, 
climatic  changes.  That  is,  the  climate  at  one 
place  might  be  warm,  then  cold,  then  warm,  and 
then  cold  again.  When,  therefore,  we  try  to 
explain  how  these  variations  in  climate  acted  on 
the  birds  which  may  have  lived  in  a  certain  place 
when  first  it  was  warm,  we  set  ourselves  no  easy 
task. 

It  is  a  good  rule  not  to  try  to  answer  the  whole 
of  a  very  difficult  question  at  once  but  to  take 
some  little  corner  of  what  seems  to  be  the  easiest 
part  of  it.  So  I  will  not  now  try  to  tell  why 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

birds  migrate.    I  will  only  attempt  to  tell  why 
some  particular  bird  migrates. 

Following  this  plan,  let  us  take  some  simple 
case,  where,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  neither  climate 
nor  food  has  anything  to  do  with  the  matter. 
The  Brown  Pelicans  of  the  east  coast  of  Florida 
will  serve  our  ends  admirably. 

During  the  greater  part  of  the  year  we  find 
these  birds  scattered  up  and  down  the  coast.  In 
diagonal  files  they  sail  in  stately  fashion  just 
above  the  breakers  to  their  fishing  grounds,  there 
to  plunge  recklessly  on  the  menhaden  which 
form  their  principal  fare.  At  night  they  gather 
on  some  favorite  sand  bar  to  sleep.  So  their 
days  are  made  up  of  flying  and  fishing  and  sleep- 
ing. Then  there  comes  a  time  when  with  no 
change  in  the  seasons  and,  so  far  as  we  know,  no 
decrease  in  the  number  of  fish,  all  the  Pelicans 
from  the  Keys  to  Georgia,  and  perhaps  farther, 
have  a  desire  to  go  to  a  little  mud  island  about 
half-way  down  the  Florida  coast.  This  is  Peli- 
can Island  in  the  Indian  River,  opposite  Sebas- 
tian. 

152 


WHY  BIRDS  TRAVEL 

If  you  were  on  this  island  in  October  you 
would  be  surprised  by  the  sudden  appearance  of 
a  flock  of  perhaps  two  or  three  thousand  Peli- 
cans. You  might  then  imagine  that  they  had 
been  traveling  together  for  some  distance,  if  you 
did  not  know  that  until  the  call  came  they  had 
been  distributed  in  small  companies  for  a  dis- 
tance of  at  least  four  hundred  miles.  Then,  just 
as  though  a  Pelican  king  had  sent  out  a  wireless 
command,  they  all  hastened  to  the  island,  form- 
ing a  great  flock  as  they  met  there.  But  this  com- 
mand did  not  come  by  wireless  or  from  a  Pelican 
king.  It  came  from  within  each  Pelican.  What 
was  it?  What  did  it  tell  them  to  do? 

It  told  them  that  the  time  was  at  hand  for 
nest-building  and  egg-laying.  In  other  words, 
the  instinct  of  reproduction  awakened.  This, 
in  turn,  aroused  the  homing  instinct,  which,  un- 
der the  guidance  of  the  sense  of  direction,  draws 
a  bird  back  to  the  place  of  its  birth. 

But  what  awakened  the  sense  of  reproduction? 
What  makes  an  apple  tree  bloom?  It  is  true  that 
Pelicans  and  apple  trees  are  not  much  alike;  still 
153 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

both  are  subject  to  the  same  laws  of  nature.  A 
Pelican  could  not  lay  eggs,  hatch  them,  and  care 
for  young  Pelicans  throughout  the  year  any  more 
than  an  apple  tree  could  bear  several  crops  of 
apples  in  a  year.  To  develop  either  eggs  or 
apples  takes  strength,  and  the  continued  use  of 
one's  strength  means  that  one  becomes  tired  and 
must  rest. 

So  when  the  crop  of  Pelicans, -or  of  apples, 
is  ripe,  the  parent  Pelicans  as  well  as  the  parent 
apple  trees,  rest.  The  Pelicans  shed  their 
feathers,  and  since  they  could  not  live  without 
them,  get  a  new  set  at  once.  The  apple  tree 
sheds  its  leaves  and  the  new  set  comes  later. 
Then  fall  and  winter  follow,  and  in  both  bird 
and  tree  the  instinct  of  reproduction  rests.  The 
return  of  warm  weather  sets  the  sap  flowing  in 
the  trees,  the  buds  begin  to  swell,  blossoms  open, 
leaves  unfold,  and,  in  due  time,  the  fruit  ripens. 

With  most  birds,  also,  the  coming  of  spring, 

if  it  does  not  actually  start  the  sap  flowing,  sets 

new  forces  in  action.    These  are  the  reproductive 

forces.     They  produce  not  buds,  blossoms,  and 

154 


WHY  BIRDS  TRAVEL 

fruit,  but  eggs,  and  the  eggs  when  incubated  give 
birth  to  birds.  So  we  see  that  in  reality  birds, 
as  well  as  trees,  bloom ;  that  both  have  their  regu- 
lar season  of  blooming  and  of  reproduction,  and 
this  season  is  generally  in  the  spring  when  in- 
creasing warmth  sets  the  sap  flowing. 

It  is  true  that  the  Pelicans  of  Pelican  Island 
begin  to  nest  when  the  weather  is  becoming 
colder  instead  of  warmer.  Why  they  should  do 
so  no  one  knows.  On  the  west  coast  of  Florida 
the  same  kind  of  Pelicans  do  not  nest  until  April. 
This  is  doubtless  the  proper  nesting  time,  but  for 
some  as  yet  unknown  reason  the  birds  of  eastern 
Florida  have  chosen  a  time  of  their  own. 

The  important  fact  here  is  that  they  all  go  at 
the  same  time  and  for  the  same  purpose.  In 
everything,  therefore,  but  length,  their  journey 
to  Pelican  Island  is  as  much  a  migration  as  is 
that  of  a  bird  which  flies  from  the  tropics  to  the 
Arctic  regions.  Both  go  each  year  at  a  certain 
season;  both  go  to  nest;  both  are  prompted  to 
start  by  the  awakening  of  the  nesting  instinct 
with  its  desire  to  go  to  a  proper  place  in  which 
155 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

to  rear  the  young;  and  when  this  task  is  finished 
the  birds  leave  the  nesting  ground. 

"But,"  you  may  ask,  "if  the  Brown  Pelican 
goes  only  as  far  north  as  Pelican  Island,  why 
does  his  cousin,  the  White  Pelican,  go  all  the 
way  to  Great  Slave  Lake  in  British  America?" 
You  might  ask  the  same  question  about  many 
other  bird  travelers  that  winter  in  the  South 
and  nest  in  the  Far  North. 

We  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  when 
last  the  Arctic  regions  were  warm,  White  Peli- 
cans fished  along  the  borders  of  the  Arctic  Ocean. 
When  the  climate  began  to  change  and  became 
cooler  and  cooler,  they,  of  course,  had  to  retreat 
slowly  southward.  Finally,  we  know  that  the 
great  ice  sheet  reached  as  far  south  as  the  central 
part  of  the  United  States.  At  that  time  the 
White  Pelican  must  have  lived  on  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  and  probably  farther  south. 

Then  as  the  climate  began  to  grow  warm 
again,  the  ice  slowly  melted ;  each  year  the  great 
sheet  grew  smaller  until  at  last  the  land  was  free 
as  it  is  today.  As  the  ice  disappeared,  the  White 


WHY  BIRDS  TRAVEL 

Pelicans  gradually  returned  to  the  country  from 
which  they  had  been  driven.  Now,  as  we  have 
seen,  they  have  actually  gone  as  far  back  as 
Great  Slave  Lake.  But  every  winter  when  the 
water  freezes  they  go  South,  only  to  return  as 
soon  as  the  ice  thaws  in  the  spring.  So  through 
many  centuries  they  slowly  formed  the  habit  of 
making  a  journey  which  gradually  grew  longer 
and  longer. 

So  then  we  may  think  of  the  marvelous  travels 
of  birds  as  due,  first  of  all,  to  those  changes  in 
climate  which  turned  a  warm  Arctic  to  a  cold 
Arctic.  As  the  ice  gradually  receded,  the  hom- 
ing instinct  led  the  feathered  exiles  back  to  the 
land  they  had  been  forced  to  desert.  The 
"blooming"  or  reproductive  instinct  tells  them 
when  to  go,  and  the  sense  of  direction  guides 
them  on  their  way. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  STUDY 

Have  you  ever  seen  Wild  Geese  migrating?     De- 
scribe their  flock  formation.     Can  you  suggest  any 
reason   for  the  birds'   journey?      Do  our  summer 
birds  leave  their  winter  quarters  in  the  tropics  be- 
157 


THE  TRAVELS  OF  BIRDS 

cause  of  any  change  in  the  climate  there?  Because 
of  any  failure  in  the  supply  of  food?  If  you  have 
ever  hunted  hens'  eggs,  have  you  noticed  that  the 
birds  often  hide  their  nests  in  places  where  they 
never  go  except  to  lay?  Mention  several  places 
of  this  kind.  Why  do  you  suppose  the  hens  select 
them?  Why  do  many  kinds  of  birds  visit  remote 
and  inaccessible  islands  on  which  to  nest?  Does  not 
the  difference  between  the  habits  of  hens  and  sea 
birds  in  nesting  in  out-of-the-way  places  consist 
largely  in  the  difference  of  the  length  of  their  jour- 
neys? What  prompts  the  hen  to  return  to  her  nest? 
What  prompts  the  sea  birds  to  go  back  to  their 
islets?  Compare  a  year  of  a  bird's  life  with  that 
of  a  tree.  What  evidence  have  we  for  the  belief 
that  a  much  warmer  climate  once  existed  in  the. 
Arctic  region?  How  do  we  know  that  the  greater 
part  of  North  America  was  once  covered  with  ice? 
How  far  south  did  the  ice  sheet  come?  Describe 
the  change  in  climate  due  to  the  gradual  freezing  of 
the  North,  and  the  invasion  and  retreat  of  the  ice 
sheet.  How  is  it  believed  to  have  affected  the  mi- 
gration of  birds? 


INDEX 


Aeroplane,  compared  with  bird, 

9 

Air  lines,  the  birds',  31 
Albatross,  wanderings  of,  28 
April  migrants,  54 

Bermuda,  migrants  in,  102 
Birds  and  insects,  128 
Birds  and  trees  compared,  154 
Blackbird,    Red-winged,    52 
Blackpoll,  travels  of,  40,  41,  126 
Bluebird,  as  migrant,  67 
Bobolink,  travels  of,  88 
Bobwhite,  wing  and  foot  of,  n 

Caribou,  migration  of,   i 
Chuck-WilPs-Widow  at  sea,  118 
Climate,  changes  in,   150 
Columbus  and  migrants,  104 
Compass  of  birds,  133 
Crow  roosts,  27 
Curlew  at  sea,  134 

Dangers  of  migration,  116 
Day  migrants,  64 
Dry  Tortugas,  143 

Engine,  the  birds',  8,  9 


Fall  migration,  when  begun,  59 
Fat  as  fuel,  16 


Feathers,  how  molted,  13,  14 
Fog  and  birds,  133 

Crackle  roosts,  20 

Great  Auk,  12 

Grosbeak,   Pine,  28 

Gull,  Franklin's,  roosts,  25 

Gull,     Herring,     following     a 

steamer,  28 
as  migrants,  70 

Hawaii,  migrants  in,  105 
Hawk's  migrating,  68 
Height  at  which  birds  travel,  85 
Homing  instinct,  139 

Insects  and  birds,  128 
Instinct  of  migration,  150 

Laws  for  birds,  131 
Lighthouses    and    migrants,    79, 

123 
Loon,  at  sea,  44 

Magnolias  in  Greenland,  150 
Man-of-War  Bird,  141 
March  migrants,  53 
May  migrants,  56 
Migration,  causes  of,  157 
Molt  of  wing-quills,  15 
Moon  and  migrants,  83 


159 


INDEX 


Nighthawk's  migrating,  71 

Night  migrants,  76 

Noddy  Tern,  experiments  with, 

143 
Notes  of  migrants,  72,  78,  138 

Parks,  migrants  in,  81 
Pelican,  Brown,  travels  of,  152 

White,  as  migrant,  69 

travels  of,  156 
Penguin,  3 
Petrel,  44 

Phalarope,  at  sea,  44 
Phoebe,   54 
Pigeon,  Carrier,  139 

Passenger,  travels  of,  74 
Plover,  Golden,  travels  of,  106- 

110 

Plumage,  change  of,  15 
Protection  of  birds,  129 

Redstart,  travels  of,  43 
Reedbird  in  ricefields,  93 
Reindeer,  migration  of,  i 
Ricebird  in  ricefields,  90 
Robin  as  migrant,  67 
Robin  roosts,  19 

Salmon,  migration  of,  i 
Seals,  migration  of,  i 
Sense  of  direction,  139,  146 
Senses  of  birds,  138 
Shad,  migration  of,  i 
Snipe,    Yellow-leg,    as   migrant, 
72 


Speed  of  migrants,  61 

Spring  migration,  when  begun, 

50 
Sooty  Terns,  experiments  with, 

143 

Starling  roosts,  20 
Statue  of  Liberty  and  migrants, 

79 

Storms  and  migrants,   119 
Summer  residents,  58 
Swallow,     Barn,      nesting     of, 

"5 

Cliff,  travels  of,  34 
wing  and  foot  of,  10 
Swallow  roosts,  22 
Swallows  as  migrants,  70 

on  wires,  21 
Swift  chimney  roosts,  24 

Telescope,   birds   seen   through, 

71,  82 

Tern,  Arctic,  travels  of,  in 
Transient   residents,   58 
Tropic  Bird,  travels  of,  102 

Warbler,  Mourning,  travels  of, 
36 

Myrtle,   at  sea,   118 

travels  of,  56 
Water-Thrush  at  sea,  117 
Weather  and  migration,  49 
Wlieatear,  travels  of,  38 
Wild  Geese,  65,  66 
Winter  visitants,   60 
Woodcock,  51 


(4) 


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